Trinity 1 2018
1 John 4:16-21
June 3, 2018
Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID
“Beloved in the Lord!” This is how we began the Divine Service after the name of our Triune God was spoken upon this this morning. “Beloved in the Lord! Let us draw near with a true heart…” Have you ever thought about that statement? Have you ever realized what the pastor is saying at that very moment? We hear the name of God, the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit exclamation pointed statement, “Beloved in the Lord!”
You are beloved! You are “much loved” by the Lord Himself! What a statement that is! What a relief that is! What comfort that brings! I have never heard anyone complain about being told that they are loved. It is not something I ever get tired of hearing, of being reminded of, of hearing from my wife or my family or my God. So we are reminded again of this saving and true love in our Epistle from St. John. In this letter alone, John calls us “beloved” 6 times!
This is the best part of the whole thing: you are beloved by God because of who God is, not because of who you are or what you have done. Love is from God as God is Love personified. To love is to will the good of the other. As God is God, He is able to do this and do this perfectly. God doesn’t need anything, He doesn’t need us. He is complete and perfect and whole all by Himself. And so He is free to love us based on His goodness, on His grace, on His kindness without any selfishness on His part, but with a love that is totally and completely focused on His creation. You are beloved because of what God has done for you. Beloved by God through Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection. Beloved by God through the forgiveness of your sins. Beloved by God because His Word abides in you.
Verse 15-16 of 1 John 4 states, “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe that the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in Him.” In the Gospel account that John wrote, he records Jesus’ words explaining this further. Abiding in God is nothing else than abiding through faith in Christ. Abiding in Christ is nothing else than having the Word of Christ abide in you. A sinner can know God, and thus love, only through faith in Jesus Christ, the Word of God become flesh. Again, earlier in the chapter, St. John writes, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him.”
So if you have ever feared, not felt good enough, special enough, plagued by worry or doubt, cling tighter the gift of faith God has given you in His Word and Sacraments and know that you are beloved by God. You don’t deserve it. You don’t earn it. But you are. And if you are not certain enough or doubt or wonder if tomorrow you won’t be loved, look again at the cross of Christ. For you can’t get away from God’s love for you there. Look to the cross, where the One who is perfect love casts out all fear and where God teaches us what is love and how to love.
As child learns to love others through the example and the love of parents, so Christians learn love through God in Christ. This is how Jesus summarizes the 10 Commandments, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind… You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37, 39). It starts with the love of God; not your love for God, but God’s love for you. We cannot truly love each other until we know the love of God in Christ. We love because He has first loved us, not so that He will love us.
“Our love for God, even though it may be small, cannot possibly be separated from faith. For we come to the Father through Christ. When forgiveness of sins has been received, then we are truly certain that we have a God, that is, that God cares for us. We call upon Him, we give Him thanks, we fear Him, we love Him as 1 John 4:19 teaches, “We love because He first loved us.” In other words, we love Him because He gave His Son for us and forgave our sins. In this way, John shows that faith comes first and love follows” (Ap V 20).
This is where the world gets things mixed up. They attempt love apart from the One who is Love. What the world considers love is actually selfish and self-centered, based on emotions. But love isn’t an emotion, it’s an act of the will, again that if focused upon the good of the other. It’s not my love through you. That’s the trick we like to play. I love you so that you love me in return. I’ll be nice to you so that you’ll nice to me. I’ll be fair to you so that you’ll be fair to me. But that isn’t love. That’s why Jesus says, “Great love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). There’s no selfishness there, but it is for the other.
The Rich Man and Lazarus exemplifies what this looks like. It is not that rich man did not love at all, but rather that he loved all the wrong things. His love was not focused on God or his neighbor, but on his possessions and himself. Surrounded by every luxury, the rich man lived a mean and despicable life, counting on himself and the things that he had accumulated. His problem wasn’t his riches, but rather his lack of real love that flowed from a lack of faith in God. He did not love his brother and therefore could not love God. The absence of love is the absence of God who is love. The unloving man was far poorer than Lazarus, a man who had nothing in this life except the love of God.
Since God is love, to know God is to know love, to know love is to know God. It is not merely that we must love God before we can know Him, but that knowing the love of God in Christ Jesus shows us what love really is and teaches us how to love. Every aspect of love that appears in the world, whether by Christians or non Christians, whether recognized or not, comes from God, is built into His creation by Him. But without Christ, there is no real love. Without knowing the love the God, we cannot love others.
True love, perfected love, cannot be accomplished by trying harder, doing more, or being better. It is not a fickle love that fades over time, waxes and wanes depending on mood and emotions. Perfect love casts out fear. Fear of sin, fear of death, fear of failure, fear of loneliness, fear of disappointment, fear of not being good enough, fear of ridicule or rejection or refusal. God’s love for us is so strong to chase away fear of punishment because God poured out His wrath against sin upon His Son on the cross. This love is based not on what we do, but on what God has done for us. It is a love that moves God Himself to eternal commitment by sending His Son to be the propitiation, the atoning sacrifice, for our sins (1 John 4:10). It is only perfected in us by Christ, by receiving His true and perfect and holy love as His bride.
St. John always proceeds from faith to love for one’s neighbor, and from here he returns to faith and demonstrates it on the basis of this fruit. If one believes in Christ, he has love. The reception of Gods’ love actually alters the attitude of the Christian toward God and toward others. It turns a self-centered heart outward in faith toward God and in love toward others. Having learned this love from God, we don’t wait for others to begin. We cannot be said to love God if we do not love others, our family, our friends, our community. We are loved undeservedly, and so we love undeservedly. If you want to love more, look to Jesus.
And so as beloved in Lord, we as Christians love our neighbors as God has loved us. What joy we have in the fact that we have people to love, either a wife or children, friends, even enemies, and we thank God, who gives us people to love. Others may do what they please and the world can run after the fleeting rush of emotions that always fades too quickly; we shall love one another with the love of Christ. A love based on commitment and relationship in light of the Crucifixion and Resurrection. For consider what a great thing it is that Christ does not spare Himself. He dies that you may live forever. He did not try to buy love or coerce it out of you; He gave His life. Through the love of God and Christ we come to the love of God the Father and of our neighbor. Although we do not see God, yet we believe and love and are declared “beloved in the Lord.”