Good morning and welcome to Wednesday. I woke up to tornado sirens at 4:30 this morning in Fort Worth. As the wail of the sirens roused me from my slumber, my sleepy mind began to form thoughts. If this is really a tornado, what am I supposed to do? I know the drill of drag the mattress over you in the bathtub, but I also grew up in Texas and I’ve seen what an F4 or F5 is capable of. If you’re in the path of one of these, it’s game over. I looked over at Margie and she is sound asleep, silent and still, oblivious to the blare of the siren. Peace in the presence of danger. It made me think of the peace and security I have in the salvation of Jesus. As a believer and follower in Jesus, I have a home in Heaven. Jesus went there to prepare it for me, and He is there to welcome me. Little things like a storm siren, makes me oh so thankful that I can be confident in Jesus. I hope the next time you hear whatever sirens might be going off in your life, that you don’t react in panic or fear, but you can rest comfortably in the peace of the salvation of Jesus.
This morning we’re going to be looking at 1 John chapter 3 and I’m going to approach it a little different. I’ve mentioned that the book of 1 John is called the book of love as love is mentioned 33 times in its 5 chapters. Today as I was reading the 3rd chapter I couldn’t help but notice the frequency of the word. It came fast and often. Each time it struck me with force. The word love and all that it connotates is a power to be reckoned with. I went back through and read it a third time and started circling every time the word love occurred. 9 times. Love 9 times. I thought to myself, how can I write a study and leave out even one of these precious mentions of love? So you know what? I’m going to include them all. I’m going to list each of the 9 verses and we’ll talk about each briefly. This should be fun!
1) “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” 1 John 3:1a
Amen! What amazing love God has lavished on us! God so loved the world that He sent His only Son to die for us so that all that believe in Him shall not die but have eternal life! (John 3:16) 1 John 3:1 is one of the quintessential verses on love in all of God’s Word. How can you ever really measure or understand the love that God has for us? It simply boggles my human mind. I love the usage of the word lavish here. Lavish is to “bestow something in generous or extravagant quantities.” Even that amazing word does not quantify God’s love for us. I love verses like this that just defy all human logic. The simple fact that we can be called children of God today should make you fall to your knees and praise God! Great love He has for us indeed.
2) “This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.” 1 John 3:10
God pulls no punches here. This a powerful, crystal clear, declarative statement. Are you a child of God or a child of the devil? A child of God will do what is right before God and they will love their brother and sister in Christ. Pretty clear right? If you are child of the devil you will do what is wrong before the Lord and that includes harboring hate for ANY brother or sister.
3) “For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.” 1 John 3:11
Folks, how many times in God’s Word do we hear that we are to love one another? Love your neighbor, love your brother in Christ, love your sister in Christ, love your enemy. John says this is nothing new! You’ve heard this and have been told this since the beginning! It’s been a command from God since the beginning and it’s imperative for creating and maintaining an atmosphere in which God’s people can operate effectively for Him. Love one another.
4) “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death.” 1 John 3:14
We get a 2fer here as this verse has love in it twice. This verse gets right down where the rubber meets the road. This verse aims to prove if we are real in our love or not. This verse says we can prove our love. That others around us can see if we really love. If you have love in your heart for others, you have life. If you don’t have love for all, you remain in death. What is death? Death is darkness and darkness in your heart is the absolute absence of God. Remember from chapter one of 1 John that “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all." God is love and God is light. If you have God in your heart, you have love and you have light. If you don’t have God, you don’t have love and you don’t have light. Simple.
5) “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.” 1 John 3:16
Another tremendous foundational statement about the love and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Because of God’s love He sent Jesus to this Earth to be born of a virgin, to live a perfect life, only to be hung on a cross to die the death of thief and a sinner. But He rose three days later to conquer our death penalty of sin once and for all. And He did it all out of love. He laid down His life for sinners. Just as He did this, we are told here that we are to lay down our life for fellow believers. What Jesus did on the cross sometimes can sound a little routine until we come to a verse like this. Are you willing to die for someone? Are you willing to lay down your life for a fellow believer? Folks, that is a love that I can’t say I really understand. This is deep thought stuff, to be sure.
6) “If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?” 1 John 3:17
John leaves no stone unturned here when hitting every aspect of love within the life of a believer. If you’re truly willing to die for someone then surely you’ll share your stuff and you rmoney with them right? Or will you? I’ve seen some people that seem like they love their stuff more than life itself. Give my stuff away? Are you crazy, do you know how hard I worked for all this stuff? Do you know how imoprtant it is? If I had to pinpoint one problem in our world today that is moving us far away from God, it is materialism. Collecting. Hoarding. There are levels of it in our world today that has never been seen. We collect things for comfort. Stuff makes us feel secure. If you see a brother or sister in need and you have the love of God in you, you will give them what they need, all they need. You will give to them as God gives to us…abundantly. Easy to say, hard to do.
7) “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” 1 John 3:18
Folks this verse should hit us right between the eyes…twice. Is your love of Christ and your love of others real or just lip service? You might be able to fool yourself, but you can’t fool God and you can’t fool others. You can be sure of one thing in this life. You’re being watched. Watched by fellow believers. Watched by your neighbors. Watched by your co-workers. Watched by your spouse. Watched by your kids. Do you talk the talk or do you walk the walk? Don’t just love in words or speech but roll up your sleeves and get busy. Genuine love for Christ will manifest itself into action. Action for God. True love for Christ will start in your heart, move to your mind and then it will end up moving your hands. Your love doesn’t stop at your lips, it starts with your hands.
8) “And this is His command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.”
Have you ever really noticed how easy God makes it for us? Go back to the Old Testament and read through the last part of Exodus and then read through the book of Leviticus. Following God had countless laws, rules and regulations. There were specific rules to worshipping and offering sacrifices to atone for your sins and if they were not followed properly it could mean death. When God sent Jesus, He made it easy for us. Jesus not only made a way, but God made it a very simple, straight path directly to Him. “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Rom 10:13) It doesn’t get more simple than that. It costs us nothing but cost Jesus everything. If you want to have a home in Heaven God made a way and He made it simple. Admit you’re a sinner. That on your own you have done bad things against God and you on your own cannot fix them or erase them. You need someone else to do that and it can’t be just anybody. It needs to be a perfect sacrifice that can approach God on your behalf. A perfect sacrifice that can pay the penalty for your sins. That is Jesus. Call upon His name and be saved. Your life will never be the same.
What a beautiful, powerful, tough study on 9 different loves from chapter 3 of first John. The great thing about God’s Word is that is challenges us. Society won’t challenge us. Easy doctrine won’t challenge us. The world won’t challenge us. But God out of His love for us wants us to grow to be better. To be more like His Son. To be filled with more love.
I pray today that you will challenge yourself to love as we have seen it today. That you will love your brother and sister in Christ. Love them at all times and at all costs. That you will see and recognize the love we have from the Father and that you will praise Him for that love all the day. That your love for the brethren would move you to provide for them out of the abundance in which God has provided for you. And that your love for Jesus would flow richly into the lives of others. That your love of Jesus flows out of your life like a river into all the lives of those around you. It’s the way of Jesus.
God bless and let your love be a light to the world today.
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