God is Love! Our Loving Response.
Last week was about being God’s children
and loving each
other.
The theme of love continues this week:
Where
does love begin?
“love
is from God”
A simple answer but true.
Last week we talked about agape love
-the
supreme type of love,
God
manifests himself to us as love;
God’s
revelation in Christ.
Our human capacity
for love is not original.
God
takes the first step,
God
reaches out to us,
and
because of God’s love, we know love,
and can reach out
to each other in love.
“We love because he first loved us”.
You and I are loved by God.
Throughout his letters and in John’s Gospel
the apostle John uses
the term ‘beloved’
when addressing
the reader;
He is not only expressing his love for the
reader,
he
is also reminding us of God’s love
for us;
God addresses humanity as ‘beloved’.
God is the source of love; God is the
essence of love.
Throughout the Old Testament, God’s love
in manifest in action.
God
makes covenants…
“And I
will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people.”
God
gives protection, mercy, forgiveness, and love.
The love that comes from God a is related
to faith;
thus there is a
relationship between faith and love.
One commentary states it simply…
“belief
is the response to God’s love that enables the community to practice love for
one another.”
The apostle John focuses on
community/fellowship…
κοινωνία, (koy-nohn-ee'-ah)
God’s love is the basis for our obligation
to love one another.
Yet there is a problem…
sometimes
we proclaim love for God but not for our neighbor,
“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.”
God’s love is perfect love, unfortunately
our love is not.
And you and I cannot claim personal
faith that involves
only our relationship to God;
we are commanded
to follow these words:
love one another,
even those who are
sometimes hard to love.
What may get in the way? Fear.
Fear
of showing our own vulnerability;
Fear
of rejection;
Fear
of loss.
The alternative…love.
“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.”
This reminds me of
a Martin Luther King Jr. quote…
“Fear
knocked,
Faith answered,
There
was no one there.”
There is a connection between faith and
love.
Love and faith can cast out fear,
just as light overcomes
darkness.
God’s light, crucified risen light, of
Jesus Christ,
shines
only God’s perfect love.
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not
overcome it.”
From our scripture today, we can know…
God
is the source of perfect love
and love is
essential in the character of God,
you
and I can experience God’s perfect love, and
we
can have confidence of God’s perfect love.
There are many ways you and I
define God;
we
anthropomorphize God by attributing human
characteristic
and behavior to God.
We
try to define God in the only ways we know how.
Yet this does not give us knowledge of God.
Paul writes in First Corinthians:
“Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Anyone who
claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge; but
anyone who loves God is known by him.”
Knowledge of God is best defined only in
terms of love:
God is love.
“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.”
God is love!
When we know God’s love, our faith is our
response to God
and
we can better live as Children of God.
How can God’s love change us?
When Moses brought down
the 10 commandments
from
Mt Sinai, it had an impact of change on the Israelites.
One of my former
professors in seminary,
Carson
Brisson, explains it well:
They (the Israelites) as they flee Egypt
and approach Mt Sinai, (are)
little more than a horde of former slaves
at the mercy of each other and the
wilderness.
But when they depart from Mt. Sinai
they are much more.
They
have received on that height Yahweh’s divine law
that
will mold them into Yahweh’s people.
God’s divine law
changed them.
And when Jesus,
God made flesh,
came
to walk among his people,
God’s
divine love brought about
a
new covenant and the new commandment…
love
one another.
From the disciples
down the centuries to you and me today,
how does divine love, change us?
how does it change the world?
You and
I are changed by divine love;
we have confidence and assurance
because
God
took the first step,
reaching out to humanity with love and
mercy,
sending Jesus to teach and preach
God’s love and grace,
and we respond as we strive to be
disciples
and
live as examples of God’s love in the world.
Because of our belief and faith:
we
share our faith,
we
do for others,
you
and I help change the world by our actions.
Our love and
actions are our response to God’s love.
Love and faith are
connected.
Love inspires us
to do for others;
we
respond to God’s love, with love for each other.
The Holy Spirit
works within each of us;
the Holy Spirit leads,
and we follow.
You and I follow God's
commandments
and they aid us in living
a life that honors God,
that helps us live in a
peaceful and just society,
and that brings
us towards discipleship,
following Jesus'
example.
Our good works are tied to our faith.
What we do as acts of love is our
faithful response to
God's will and to
show love for our neighbors
A quote from theologian Dietrich
Bonhoeffer:
“There is no faith without good works,
and no good works apart from faith”.
Faith and good works are intertwined.
It is almost a which came first question.
Do we do good works because we are
faithful,
or do we show our faith
by doing good works?
Both are true.
We are blessed to have opportunities to
share our faith
through the good works we
do and
to have a faith that
enables,
even commands us to do for
others.
I mentioned this hymn last week,
and it seems to fit again
this week:
"We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the
Lord....we will work with each other, we will work side by side....and they
will know we are Christians by our love. "
You and I work side by side;
side
by side with each other,
side
by side as Christians, as disciples.
May we go forth today,
sharing our faith and
doing good works as we respond to
God's love,
God’s will, and
God’s command to love
one another,
as we strive to be better
disciples of Christ,
as we let the Holy Spirit
work in us, and
as we share God's love
with our neighbor,
our community, and the
world.
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