Responding To Love
I John 4:7-21
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us. Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.
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We often talk about loving our neighbors as ourselves. It is a core tenant of our Christian faith and an essential principle to how we conduct ourselves in public and private spheres. What does it look like, though, for us to love God? God, after all, is the source of all goodness, all life, the well-spring of perfected love that dwells inside every one of us. As the reading this morning points outs, "God lives in us, and God's love is perfected in us." So how are you responding to the love of God in your life? In what ways are you allowing the perfected love of God to transform you? There is a responsibility, after all, on our part to incorporate this undeserved love into our lives, our relationships, and our spiritual practices. And this call to invoke the love of God in our lives goes beyond attending church on Sunday. Witnessing God's grace means that our hearts should leap at every opportunity to grow in faith and love. Yet is that the first inclination our heart has when in the presence of God?
The writer of I John knows very well that life often can act as a roadblock in our relationship with God. Before the composition of I John, the post-war Judaic community was recovering from a revolution. And following this tumultuous time of fighting, a community of Christ's disciples struggled to understand themselves in a world that did not embrace their values or beliefs. In this tension, discord between the early church broke out, and this is where the author of our text enters the pictures. The letters of I John seek to stem the turmoil within the early church and disciples and strengthen them by sending a reminder of their purpose and the relationship they have with God. If we aren't paying attention, time will slip by without noticing that we've neglected what's essential. Moving from one thing to the next without any time with God is dangerous. We'll get to the point where we hear something like "God is love" and that "God lives in us," but we won't fully understand unless we prioritize God and God’s relationship to us.
Our hearts should leap at the opportunity to grow in faith and the love of God. Life, as we know, can get in the way. So how will you, we, challenge ourselves to dive deeper into a relationship with God that pushes us outside of our comfort zone and into a place where the Spirit of God truly transforms us? Love transforms, generally speaking, of course, which means that divine love has even greater potential to alter us if we choose to lean hard into what is required of such love. How do you begin this practice of spiritual and personal development? Start with saying a prayer, start with reading a daily verse of Scripture, start with anything that will help you learn to love more deeply. In learning to love God, we will learn to love ourselves. We need to put this faith and love into action; however, it cannot flourish if we limit our spirituality to one dose a week. Isn't that what Jesus taught us? That to know God, to know ourselves, we must open ourselves to the sacrifices and work that our faith demands.
God abides in us and continues to reveal the knowledge of perfected love. We will stumble in our quest to understand it. We will inevitably embarrass ourselves. Yet, for every step we take beyond our comfort zone to more intimately acquaint ourselves with God, we answer the call. Much of the work has already been done. God set the table for us to gather around to partake of bread and cup. All we need to do is sit down, to be intentional about the time we spend with God. The gift of new life, Easter life, that dwells inside came at a high price that offers us a sense of peace and assurance of the ever-present Spirit of God that continues to move with us in this chaotic and beautiful world. So let us strive to learn, cultivate, and harvest the fruits that grow when we invest in loving God with our whole hearts, knowing that the impact is world-changing. Amen.