Sunday, March 30, 2014

The Challenge of Love 1 John 3

Introduction
Last week we looked at the command to love one another and what love looks like. We were challenged to think about what aspects of love that we need to work on personally, given the description of love in 1 Cor 13.

We also thought about the truth that loving God means not loving the things of this world but having a heavenly and eternal mindset not an earthly and temporal mindset. We also have the Holy Spirit to teach us to help us stay on track and listen to God’s still small voice.

This week the challenge of love addresses our response to Hod's great love for us. It is the challenges of obedience, right living and love in action. John comes back time and again to the challenge of love and what it means. Its clear that he really wants his readers to get this message of love.

Truth 1
God’s children choose to do what is

Chapter 2 of 1 John  finishes with an entreaty to remain in fellowship with Jesus, that is, in right relationship with him. He goes on to say that all who do what is right are God’s children.

1 John 2:28-29
New Living Translation (NLT)
Living as Children of God
28 And now, dear children, remain in fellowship with Christ so that when he returns, you will be full of courage and not shrink back from him in shame. 29 Since we know that Christ is righteous, we also know that all who do what is right are God’s children.

Remember that this is in the context of a relationship with God through trust in Christ. The context is also that Christ has made atonement and is our advocate. As a result, we show that we are God’s children because we choose to live in a way that is right and is in obedience to Christ.

The fact that we can be called God’s children shows God’s great love for us. As a result we keep ourselves pure by the way we live. Because we are being made like Christ; because we are his Children; because we live in an eager expectation of Christ’s appearing, we live the way he wants us to. The truth is that Christ lived a pure life and that he our example.

1 John 3:2-3
New Living Translation (NLT)
2 Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. 3 And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure.
John goes on to encourage us that as followers of Christ the expectation is that we will not sin.

In fact, if we choose to deliberately go on sinning, this shows that we don’t fully understand who Christ is and what he has done for us. Jesus himself told his disciples that to love him was to obey his commandments.

Challenge
Live in purity and obedience to the Commands of Jesus

John 15:9-10
New Living Translation (NLT)
9 “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. 10 When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.

Notice that obedience is given in the framework of love. Jesus loves us in the same way that God loves him, and we obey Jesus in the same way he obeyed his father. The context is always as a result of a loving relationship. Obedience is not what saves us, but obedience is meant to be a natural outworking of following Christ. We obey because we love him and he loves us.

John presses his point here in chapter three just to make sure we get it. He does not want us to be deceived by what others say, what the worldly view is, but to always consider God’s standard. It’s easy to be sucked in by worldly thinking. The whole idea of no absolute truth, if it feels right it must be right etc. all war against the truth of God’s word.

1 John 3:7-9
New Living Translation (NLT)
7 Dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you about this: When people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous. 8 But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil. 9 Those who have been born into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life[a] is in them. So they can’t keep on sinning, because they are children of God.

Those who continue in sin – this is making a practice of sinning – deliberately living in an ungodly way shows they do not really belong to God. It does not mean that if we slip up we are no longer God’s children, it means if we deliberately choose to live in a way that is ungodly, not trying to live the right way we have to look careflly at our understanding of what a relationship with God means.

Remember that God’s grace is always there for us and he loves us. The good news is that in all of this, even though the enemy may try to deceive, and even though we sometimes struggle, Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. When we are born into God’s family, we don’t make a practice of sinning. We might slip up, but God’s grace is sufficient. The work of the enemy in our lives has been defeated and destroyed.

Exercise:
Am I living in obedience to Jesus’ commandments?
In what areas might I have succumbed to the world’s way of thinking rather than God’s?
This is an exercise in self reflection so be honest with yourself and with God.
What do I need to do now to make a change? Do I need to learn more, spend more time with God?

Make a decision to know Christ more, and in knowing him more to understand more of who he really is and what that means. Find out how he tells us we are to live; e.g Love one another as he loves us; Love God with all your heart and all your soul, mind strength; Love your neighbour as yourself; Treat others in a way that you would like to be treated.

Matt 5-Matt 7 are great chapters of the Bible. They are a record of Jesus’ sermon on the mount and are full of the way we are to live. Remember that the context is God’s love for us, our obedience as a response. Living in obedience to God brings a more fruitful and productive way of living.

Truth 2
Loving one another requires action not just lip service

We must love one another. John says that if we don’t love one another we are still living in death. In fact he reiterates Jesus’ statement about love and hate. If we hate someone we are actually a murderer at heart.

1 John 3:14-15
New Living Translation (NLT)
14 If we love our Christian brothers and sisters,[a] it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still dead. 15 Anyone who hates another brother or sister[b] is really a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don’t have eternal life within them.

This is why this series is the challenge of love. Loving in the same way that Jesus loved us is the foundation on which all else is laid. John tells us that true love means loving the way Jesus loved by giving his life up for us.

Mark 10:45
New Living Translation (NLT)
45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Romans  5:8 tells us that even when we were still sinners Christ dies for us.

Jesus loved us so much that he was prepared to give up everything he had, to leave the glories of heaven, to put aside his own position and power and become like us, giving up everything for us even his own life. And he did it all even when we still lived in sin.

As a response we are to love others and give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. This requires action on our part. Last week when we looked at love we focussed on what love actually is, on the aspects of love. Today the focus is not on how I can develop the attributes of love in myself, but on how I can practically show that love to others.

1 John 3:16-19
New Living Translation (NLT)
16 We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister[a] in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person?
18 Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions. 19 Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God.

It is by our deeds that we show our love and not by our words alone. True love requires us to give up our own selfish attitudes and to “lay down our lives” for others.

Challenge
Live in a way that loves enough to give up our own comforts and our own life for the sake of others

This does not necessarily mean dying a physical death, or giving up the hopes and dreams we have. It does mean putting aside our own selfish ambitions for the sake of others. The challenge of love means not always getting our own way or having to be the centre of attention. It means living in a way where the needs of others are considered and we are prepared to put their need before our own.

This might require us to give of our time, our effort, our money and to put aside our own things for the sake of the greater good, and not expect anything back in return. When we live showing love by helping others with the right attitude (helping others with the wrong attitude is not much help) we can be confident when we stand before God.

Exercise:
Where do I need to make some life adjustments?
What attitudes do I have that stop me from “laying down my life” for another?
In what practical way can I show God’s love to someone this week without expecting anything back in return?

The truth is that if we choose to live this way, and exercise love this way, God actually promises to give us back much more. It’s not the reason for doing it; it’s the result of doing it. Jesus met the rich young man who could not give up what he had to follow Christ and went away sad. Good old Peter was willing to voice what the others were thinking.

Mark 10:28-31
New Living Translation (NLT)
28 Then Peter began to speak up. “We’ve given up everything to follow you,” he said.
29 “Yes,” Jesus replied, “and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or property, for my sake and for the Good News, 30 will receive now in return a hundred times as many houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and property—along with persecution. And in the world to come that person will have eternal life. 31 But many who are the greatest now will be least important then, and those who seem least important now will be the greatest then.[a]”

They had already followed the example of Jesus and given up their lives for a greater cause and would continue to do so after the death and resurrection of Jesus. God’s promise to us is that if we are willing to live in obedience, if we are willing to live in love, we will be rewarded both in this life and in the life to come.

Conclusion
Because of God's great love for us, choose to love God by living in obedience to the commands of Jesus. Choose to show our love for others by the actions of our lives, by thinking of others before ourselves and loving others by laying down our life for them.

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