I. Introduction Signs of Perfect Love July 19, 2015 1 John 4:16b-5:5 Up to this point, John s emphasis has been on Christians loving one another. He s written that such love is a proof of fellowship with God, a proof of our sonship in God, and is the result of Christians having the nature of God in them. Each concept has built on the previous one. Now John turns to a deeper and more important topic: a believer s love for his or her heavenly Father. When Jesus was asked in Matthew 22:36, Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law? He replied in verses 37-39: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. We cannot love our neighbor or our brother unless we love our Heavenly Father. We must first love God with all our hearts; then we can love our neighbor as our selves. The love God has for the Son, He has for us in John 17:26 Jesus prayed, I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them. John 3:16 tells us that God loved us enough to send His Son to die for us. The Christian life is to be a daily experience of growing in the love of God. It involves a Christian s coming to know his Heavenly Father in a much deeper way as he grows in love in response to God s amazing love. Mature Christian love, John calls it perfect love or love that is made complete should be the goal of every Christian. In today s Scripture, John gives four signs of a perfect or a mature love. II. Four Signs of Perfect/Mature Love A. Confidence In verse 17 John wrote, In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment. The first sign of perfect or mature love is confidence. A believer who experiences perfecting love maturing love grows in confidence toward God in many ways. He doesn t have to fear the past, the present, or the future a Christians doesn t need to fear the past, present, or future, for he has experienced the love of God. Hebrews 9:27 says, Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment. But a Christian doesn t have to fear future judgment, because Christ has suffered judgment on the cross for those who believe in Him. In John 5:24 Jesus said, I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death 1
to life. Or as Paul put it in Romans 8:1, There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For a Christian, judgment is not future, it is past. His sins have been judged already at the cross, and they will never be brought against him again. The Father cannot judge our sins again without judging His Son again 1 Peter 3:18 says, For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit. Christians can be confident, without fear, in the present as well as in the future, because we are like him i.e. like Jesus Christ. God the Father treats Christians the same way He does His Son Jesus Christ. Romans 8:15 reminds us that You did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father. 2 Timothy 1:7 says, For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. Someday believers will stand before God s throne as confidently as our Lord and Savior does. When they reach that final accounting, they will see the completion of 1 John 3:2, We know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Since a Christian has confidence in the Day of Judgment, he can have boldness as he faces life today no matter what happens here, the bliss and joy of eternity will make all the things that come before disappear in insignificance. God wants His children to live in love and confidence, not in fear and punishment. We don t need to fear life or death, for we are being perfected in the love of God. Turn to Romans 8:35-39. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. John writes that the reason Christians can have confidence regarding the future is that We love because He first loved us. B. Love of brothers As a Christian experiences and grows in understanding of God s love for him, his love for God will mature fear of punishment will disappear and confidence will grow. This confidence leads to another sign of maturing love: love of the brothers. John warned that anyone who claimed to love God but did not love others is a liar. He wrote in verse 20, If anyone says, I love God, yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. It is absurd to claim to love the invisible God but at the same time not show love to His children. God s perfect love is a blessing for believers to know and a joy for them to share with others. Agape love is more than any kind of feeling the world can experience, it is a complete, mature love that reflects the nature of God and the work of Christ and flows through believers to anyone in need. Because he knows God loves him and accepts him even with all his faults and forgives him of his sins, a mature Christian is ready to accept others the way they are and is ready to forgive them. A 2
mature Christian honestly loves his brother not because he is commanded to love, but because he wants to love. This love, like God s love, is demonstrated in several ways. 1) A mature love is ready to forgive unconditionally turn to Matthew 18:21-22; 2) Galatians 6:2 gives the 2 nd way love is demonstrated: a mature love carries each other s burdens. 3) A mature love meets the needs of others turn to Philippians 2:3-4. A false Christian cannot grow in his love for God and he cannot consistently demonstrate such love. He is professing something that he is not really practicing; he is playing a role instead of living his life. John wrote that He is a liar and he cannot love God. C. Joyful Obedience A third sign is joyful obedience John wrote in verse 3 of chapter 5, His commands are not burdensome. God doesn t want us to disobey Him, but neither does He want us to obey out of fear or necessity. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 9:7, Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. This is also how we should live cheerfully joyfully obeying not reluctantly or under compulsion. Obedience is a family matter. We are serving a loving Father and helping our brothers and sisters in Christ. We have been born of God, we love God, and we love God s children. We demonstrate this love by keeping God s commandments. Jesus said in John 14:15, If you love me, you will obey what I command. D.L. Moody put it this way: We show our love to God, not by empty words but by willing works. We are not slaves obeying a master; we are children obeying a Father because we love Him. An immature Christian considers the demands of the Bible to be burdensome. He is like a little child who is learning to obey and who asks, Why do I have to do that? What happens if I don t do it? His obedience is unwilling, partial, inconsistent, or grudging or all the above The maturing Christian, one who experiences God s perfecting love, does not find His commandments burdensome; in Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus said, Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. In Psalm 119, the psalmist expressed his feelings for God s law turn to Psalm 119:14, 16, 24, 97, 103. Those who love God will obey His law, because they want to honor His holy nature. They don t obey because of fear or dread but out of loving adoration. Just as a loving son or daughter happily obeys his or her father s commands, so a Christian with maturing love joyfully obeys God s commands. Love lightens burdens. Do you remember the story of Jacob who had to work seven years to earn his wife 3
Rachael? In Genesis 29:20 we read, So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her. Perfecting love produces joyful obedience. D. Victory Christians are not of the world, but we are in the world. Praying for His disciples, Jesus said in John 17:16, They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. At first glance, it isn t always easy to obey God. Sometimes it seems much easier to walk with the world, disobey God, and do your own thing. But, as verse 4 says, Everyone born of God overcomes the world. As John has written several times in this short letter, Christians have God s nature in them and it is impossible for the divine nature to disobey God. Inside every Christian are two natures: the old sinful nature and the new spiritual nature. But we are not on our own in this battle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:57, But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the 4 th sign of perfecting/maturing love: Victory. John wrote This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. This is a victory of faith faith in Jesus Christ verse 5 says, Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. It isn t faith in ourselves, but faith in Jesus Christ, that gives us the victory. In John 16:33 Jesus said, In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. Someone has said that faith is not so much believing in spite of evidence, but obeying in spite of consequence. The victory of the mature Christian, the perfecting-love-christian, is the result of faith, and we grow in faith as we grow in love. The more you love someone, the easier it is to trust him. The more our love for Jesus Christ is perfected, the more our faith in Christ is perfected, too. Faith and love mature together. III. Conclusion Confidence, loving the brothers, obedience, victory sin can ruin all of this. When we disobey God, we lose our confidence toward Him we become concerned about judgment. We remember verses like Numbers 32:23, You may be sure that your sin will find you out. We find that things begin to come between ourselves and our brothers we find it hard to love them with an agape love. We may even find ourselves staying away from their company lest we be found out. Instead of reading God s Word with joy and discovering the Father s will, we ignore it or merely glance at it we aren t ready to obey it joyfully. Instead of feeling victorious, we feel defeated. When we sin, we need to immediately confess our sin and claim God s forgiveness 1 John 1:9 says, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 4
Once sin is removed as a barrier between us and God, we need to get right back walking with the Lord. We need to read His Word and pray, and fellowship with God s people. Christian love is not a passing emotion; it is a permanent, deep desire to please Christ and to do His will. The more we know Him the better we love Him, and the better we love Him the more we become like Him Romans 8:29 says we are to be conformed to the likeness of his Son. 1 John 3:2 says that we won t be completely like Him until we see Him, but we can begin the change now. A good way to develop this perfecting or maturing love is to daily read the Word not just on Sunday mornings, meditate on it, and worship Christ in prayer and praise. As God told Joshua in Joshua 1:8, Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. As God s love is perfected in you as you are prosperous and successful, you will have confidence toward Him and you won t have to live in fear John wrote that perfect love drives out fear. Because fear is gone, you can be honest and open and are free to openly love the brothers as James 1:22 says, Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Because fear is gone, your obedience to His commands will be because of love, not fear of punishment. They really aren t burdensome. Finally, living in confidence, love, and joyful obedience to God, you are able to face the world with victorious faith and to overcome instead of being overcome God s promise to Jeremiah in Jeremiah 1:19 is for us too, They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you, declares the LORD. Or as Philippians 4:13 says, I can do everything through him who gives me strength. Proverbs 3:5-6 sums it all up this way: Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. 5