#28 Top 40 New Testament Passages: God is Love (1st John 4:16)

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. (1st John 4:16)

I went to a retreat one weekend with a retired pastor leading our sessions. As the weekend was wrapping up, I walked up to the pastor to express my thanks for his leadership. As we talked the topic drifted to some of the things he was passionate about. He was especially passionate about people in our society who are marginalized because of their sexual orientation. He has a daughter who is lesbian. As he spoke I sensed his compassion for her pain. His own pain became apparent as he looked at me with tears and asked, "Why do we make it so hard?" "Why can't we simply choose to love?" "The greatest theological statement in all of scripture is so clear and simple" he said, "God is love." I've never forgotten that conversation. Even now I can sense his voice saying "God is love", as if it were the most important words he should ever speak.

The Apostle John is known as the beloved disciple. He refers to himself in this cloaked way as an expression of humility, I think, rather than giving his name. For John the only name that truly matters is Jesus Christ. Jesus is the way to the Father, the creator of all things. Jesus is the truth of God's love and righteousness in human form. Jesus is the life, abundant, overflowing, ongoing, and eternal. The life that is Jesus is the light of the world.

Exactly how Jesus is all these things has been written about in book upon book over the centuries. there are libraries filled with books on the nature of Jesus Christ and his importance for all. A simple search on the subject of Christianity at WorldCat.org, the internet's largest database of published works, reveals over 2.3 million titles! Even John acknowledges that he hadn't shared everything there is to share about Jesus.

This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true. But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. (John 21:24-25)

Yes, volume after volume has been written about Jesus, but John makes a simple, yet profound statement in his first letter to the Church, which made the New Testament Top 40 list. God is love. (1st John 4:8, 16) He says it twice in the fourth chapter of 1st John.

Let's consider first the context in which this simple, yet deeply meaningful, statement was made. 

John wrote at a time (the late first century A.D.) when Gnostic beliefs were infiltrating the life of the Church. John is addressing is the heretical idea that Jesus was not really human. The Gnostics held that Jesus was divine and only appeared to be human. They also thought of Jesus as a lesser god below the supreme mystery. The Son of God was not the same as the Father, but less than the fullness of God. John's purpose for writing is to expose false teachers in the Church and to assure believers of their salvation in Christ.

John presents himself as an eyewitness to Jesus, who has seen with his own eyes, and touched with his own hands the Life that came into the world. John was a brother to James, both Galilean fisherman. They followed Jesus as his disciples for at least three years. Jesus chose John and James as apostles who would grow His church. John wishes his readers to have fellowship with him and all those who know God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. (1st John 1:3)

First John proclaims that God is light.

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. (1st John 1:5)

If we have fellowship with God, then our lives will reflect that we walk in truth, which lights our way. But those who live sinful lives reveal that they walk in darkness and in ignorance of God. A key truth is that God sacrificed Jesus Christ for our salvation. Forgiveness is given through the death of God's Son. 

If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1st John 1:9)

Obedience is the mark of one's knowledge of God. When we intentionally live our lives making sinful decisions, God's truth is not in us. Those who truly belong to Christ pursue Christlikeness. 

Whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has reached perfection. By this we may be sure that we are in him: whoever says, “I abide in him,” ought to walk just as he walked. (1st John 2:5-6)

If we claim to walk in God's light then we will love one another. Loving action is the sign that God's light is leading. (1st John 2:10) 

Now John hits me in the gut when he confronts my sin. Like a good consumer, I have invested too much in the comforts of this world, a world that is coming to nothing. I pray I will not be found wanting on the Day of the Lord. I understand that investing in the things of this world, falling short of fully giving my heart to God, leaves me spiritually bankrupt. 

Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world; for all that is in the world—the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches—comes not from the Father but from the world. And the world and its desire are passing away, but those who do the will of God live forever. (1st John 2:15-17)

I'm convicted. I seek redemption to free me of my false gods, so that I may fully embrace the living God. As I straddle the fence between the world's desire and full fledged love for God, perhaps I walk neither in light or in dark, but in the endless gray of winter. 

John speaks against the heretical teaching of those who teach that Jesus is not the Christ, the Son of God. But the Church is anointed with the spiritual presence of Christ, so the Church knows inherently that Jesus is the resurrected and glorified Son. John encourages the Church to continue to abide in Christ. (1st John 2:20-27) We abide in Christ through the Holy Spirit.

The anointing of the Holy Spirit reveals our status as children of God. Faith in Christ purifies us. (1st John 3:3) John says some very straightforward things about sin that challenge comfortable Christianity. If we belong to Christ we do not sin.

No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. Those who have been born of God do not sin, because God’s seed abides in them; they cannot sin, because they have been born of God. The children of God and the children of the devil are revealed in this way: all who do not do what is right are not from God, nor are those who do not love their brothers and sisters. (1st John 3:6, 9-10)

Note that walking in God means loving others. Doing what is right means loving others. If we are not loving others, we remain a captive of darkness and death. (1st John 3:14-15)

How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. (1st John 3:17-18)

John assures the Church that we can know if we are saved or not. We can know if we belong to God or not. We know by loving others. We know because the love of God is experienced within our hearts through the presence of the Holy Spirit. God's love leads us and empowers us to love others. (1st John 3:23-24)

After warning that not every spirit speaking to our hearts is from God, John gives the Church a way to test the spirits. Will that voice in your head and heart acknowledge that Jesus came in the flesh (Fully Human), sent to us from God in heaven (Fully God)? (1st John 4:2-3) False teachers will gain the ear of those who belong to the world, but the Church must not be fooled. We are to remain in Christ and love as Christ has loved us.

John encourages the Church to love one another as those who are born of God, for God is love! (1st John 4:7-8) God loves us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for us. (1st John 4: 10) If we love one another the invisible God, who is light and love, lives in us. (1st John 4:12)

Again the Holy Spirit is key to our knowledge of God. Through the Spirit we feel God's presence and are empowered by love. Faith in Jesus, the Son of God, brings the gift of the Holy Spirit to dwell in us, that in Him we might have eternal life. Through the Spirit we know the love of God. We know the love that is God. And that love removes all guilt and fear of God's wrath. By the love of God at work in us, through faith in Christ, we have confidence to stand before God without fear of judgement. Love is made perfect or complete in us when we are completely confident of God's love for us through the cross of Jesus Christ. 

God is love. Love lives in you by faith in the Son of God through the Holy Spirit. 

God is love. We love one another because God first loved us in Christ.

God is love. We are washed clean in the blood of Jesus and stand in confidence before the Almighty.