Love Continued

John makes three points about God’s love in 1 John 4: What God Is: “God is love” (1 John 4:7–8). 2
How does God love? He loves before He is loved (1 John 4:9–10). God loves even if not loved in return (Romans 5:8–10). God loves the unworthy (Ephesians 2:4–5). His love is indiscriminating. Unless Christians show this love, their religion is unauthenticated (1 Corinthians 13:1–8). Love shows that Christians have passed from death to life
(1 John 3:14). Love shows that we are born of God (1 John 4:7–8). Love is God’s fingerprint on our lives.

What God Did: “He sent His Son” (1 John 4:9–11; cf. 3:16–18). Love must act. It demonstrates. It gives. Imitating God, Christian love must find an outlet. What God Is Doing: “God abides in us” (1 John 4:12–16). 

 Abide is a key word for John. He shows the culmination of centuries of God’s love finding new ways to get closer to us. In Genesis, God “walked” with men and men walked with God (3:8; 5:22, 24; 6:9). Later, God dwelt in the tabernacle in the midst of the Jews’ camp (Exodus 40:34). After that, His presence filled the temple (1 Kings 8:10–11). Men became used to living with God ever near them. In the  New Testament church, God moved closer. He now dwells in Christians’ hearts (1 Corinthians 6:19–20; Ephesians 2:20–22).  In a spiritual sense, He is a constant companion. How can others tell if God is present in Christians? By our love. Love shows that He dwells in us (1 John 4:12), and we dwell in Him (1 John 4:16). It is possible to love without being God’s child, but it is impossible to be a true child of God without loving. Jesus loves everybody, and Christians follow His lead (Philippians 2:3–4). Jesus commanded “that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:34–35; cf. 15:12). This “new command” took love to a higher level. No longer do believers love others as themselves, as in the Old Testament (Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 5:43). Now Christians love as Christ loved (Ephesians 5:1–2, 25), which is the full measure of love (John 15:13; 2 Corinthians 8:9).

In today’s sexually permissive society, it often feels as if Christians must choose between either being too soft on sin or too hard on sinners. God hates sin (Proverbs 6:16–19; Psalm 119:104), and He commands Christians to hate evil (Psalm 97:10; Romans 12:9). Yet God loves sinners and commands Christians to do so. As in all things, Jesus set the perfect example. He hated sin yet loved sinners. For instance, He once dealt with a woman His enemies brought to Him and accused of adultery (John 8:1–11). “Should we stone her?” they asked. (Moses’ Law stipulated death for adultery [Deuteronomy 22:22].) Jesus had the odd reputation of being both a holy prophet and a friend of harlots (Luke 7:37–50), so they thought they had Him in a trap. If He said “No,” then He showed disrespect for Moses’ law as no prophet would do. If He said, “Yes,” then He was not the friend of sinners. These Pharisees were not truly interested
in righteousness. If so, why bring only her? Both the man and woman were equally guilty. They wanted to find a way to accuse Jesus (John 8:6). How would Jesus handle it? He could take the path of rigid holiness and have her
killed. He could take the path of indulgent love and lend support to immorality. Instead He chose the third path that they had not considered: the path of amazing grace. He “stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.” They finally demanded an answer, so He stood and said, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her” (8:6–8). He then stooped again. One by one, they dropped their rocks and left, until she was the only one left. How did Jesus handle sin and sinners? He reached out to her. With His enemies gone and the crisis averted, Jesus could have gone back to His sermon and let the embarrassed woman simply melt into the crowd.
He chose instead to help her prepare for heaven, saying, “Woman, where are those  thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?” (8:10–11). He assured her of forgiveness. “Neither do I condemn thee” (8:11). How sweet those
words must have sounded to her. Since all her accusers were gone, and the law required at least two witnesses (Deuteronomy 17:6), there was no longer a case.  He challenged her to live a new life. “Go, and sin no more” (John 8:11). This implied a choice—she could go back to her lover or make Jesus her Lord. He wanted her to change. Jesus never pardons sinners to leave them as He found them. He requires each to deny self, take up his cross, and follow Him (Luke 9:23). The Spirit dwells in Christians, and the fruit of the Spirit is love (Galatians 5:22–23).
God promised the Spirit to those who believe (John 7:39). He works in the lives of Christians through the Word (Ephesians 6:17) to mold Christians’ character into Christ’s image (2 Corinthians 3:18). How
can one tell if the Spirit is having success in building character? If the Spirit’s influence is present there will be love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance (Galatians 5:22–23).
To reduce expenses, a large drama class purchased only a few scripts and cut them up into the separate parts. At rehearsal,

nothing went right. The director finally said: “Sit down, relax, and listen. I’ll read the whole play to you.” When he finished, one actor said: “So, that’s what it’s all about!”3 Understanding the big picture helps in seeing an individual’s role. Why do Christians care? That’s what it’s all about

“He chose the
third path
that they had
not considered:
the path of
amazing grace.”
2 House to House ~ Heart to Heart