Sermon 15
Sermon by Jeff Wattley
in 2005
At
1 John Series
The Love of God; Perfect Love
When I was little my dad had
a grand looking old car that was actually pretty useless. It was an Armstrong Siddley
and I think it was about 25 years old. It
was so rusty that water used to shoot up through the floor when we went through
puddles, and its engine was really old and unreliable so Dad tried to avoid
going up hills. But it looked quite
grand with running boards along the side and brown leather seats. Dad used to tell people it was a Rolls. Really! they would say looking un-convinced. Yes! he would
say: it’s a “Rolls Canardley”
: It rolls down the hills and can ‘ardly get up the other side!
I want to think this morning
about the kind of love that goes uphill:
Love for those we really don’t like: love for the people who plainly
don’t like us; love for those who have hurt us, or betrayed us or who have
treated us badly. This kind of uphill love is what the Bible calls Agape
love. This is the subject that John
returns to in the second part of 1 John Chapter 4. Please turn to page 1225/6?.
There aren’t many pop songs
about this kind of love. This is a
different kind of love from the sort that is usually celebrated in romantic
novels and
The Greek word Agape (love) which John uses throughout 1 John seems to
have been virtually a Christian invention -- a new word for a new thing. Agape
is not a form of natural affection but a supernatural fruit of the Spirit (Gal.
So for all of us here who can think of someone: especially someone who
is part of the Christian Family who we find it hard or impossible to love,
let’s explore this idea of Agape love in a bit more depth.
This kind of love always starts with God. In verse 7 John tells us that agape love
comes from God and in verse 8 he tells us that God is Love (God is Agape). This is the second time John has described
the very essence of God. In Chapter 1
verse 5 he said God is light and now
he says God is Love. But this is not the easy kind of love you
simply fall into. God’s love is a love
that is costly, deliberate and which overcomes all kinds of obstacles and
resistance. It is self giving and
sacrificial. Most of all it is undeserved.
It is the love that climbs hills.
For the object of God’s love is sinful men and
women. This is how God showed his love among us (v9): He sent his one and only
Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that
he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
The thing we need to grasp
afresh is that God’s love for us was totally unearned, and unmerited, and
undeserved. It was while we were still
sinners: and therefore enemies of God that Christ died for us. God knows all about loving the people who are
hardest to love: those who betrayed him, those who wounded him, those who
opposed him and even those who crucified him.
Agape love has the power to overcome all those things. Agape love runs uphill.
And then John makes an
amazing connection. He says in verse 13,
Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. This is not simply an exhortation to try our
best to mirror Christ’s example wherever we can. It is an obligation (we ought) to be a
channel of God’s love. The love, and the power to drive it comes from God himself. But we need to become the channel along which
it can flow. In verse 12 John uses this
astonishing phrase when he says, If we love one
another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
Made complete: perfected:
delivered to its final recipient by you and by me. It is like the completing of a jigsaw. We cannot see the whole picture until we
allow God’s agape love to flow through us to power us up the hills and love
those who we could not love in our own strength. Only then the jigsaw is complete. In this sense, God’s love which originates in
God and was revealed in his Son is made complete when his children love one
another especially when it is hard. And
do you know God sometimes gives people we find it hard to love just so that we
can learn about the power of his grace among us.
There are three ways in which
this truth can and should impact the lives of individual Christians and the
First, God’s Agape love for
us can transform the way we look at ourselves.
Instead of being absorbed with what others think of us and achievements
we discover what value God attaches to us.
He sent his one and only Son to die for us. That is the only opinion that matters: in
God’s opinion you are priceless. Knowing
that is the foundation for the way we relate to others.
Second, because of God’s
Agape love for us we can become a channel of his love to others. We stop focussing on our own needs and
reputation to focus on the needs of others.
Jesus set us the ultimate example when he took a towel and washed the
feet of his own disciples, including Judas, knowing that he would soon be
betrayed by him. As Christians who have
received God’s Rolls Royce love it is our duty and our joy to pass it on at
every opportunity.
We love because he first loved us.
Finally, we come back to the
knotty problem of the people we find it hardest to love: those who have hurt us or betrayed us or who
know how to make us feel weak or afraid.
They may not be enemies in any conventional sense of the word, but we
know that our hearts are at enmity with them:
the very mention of their name provokes a reaction within us:
John is uncompromising. If
anyone says, I love God and yet hates his brother he
is a liar. Whoever loves God must also
love his brother.
Remember God’s purpose for
his children is not that they should live a comfortable and successful life on
earth. God’s purpose is that we should
develop the Character of Christ, and the Character of Christ is summed up in
the fact that he willingly went through the agony of the Cross out of love for
sinful men and women. We need to learn
to show the same kind of love (agape love) and so God allows us to face
challenges including the challenge to love some difficult people who we
encounter in our lives.
I don’t know who is your
uphill person: A mother in law who is
unreasonable: a teenager who is rude and non-communicative; a fellow church member
who criticises your best effort, a parent who never says anything encouraging;
the relative with the drink problem, the boss who takes advantage of you, you
can fill in the blank and you may want to remember a name quietly before God.
God wants to complete the
journey of his love to them through you.
It does not matter if they are not attractive; if you are not drawn to
them, if they don’t appreciate your efforts or even if they coldly reject you
because the love of God has a power of its own and it can drive up hill. It
goes on working after you have delivered it.
The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is available in Christ to
love the unlovable people in our lives.
It is the love that can love our enemies and pray for those who
persecute you. It is the love that cried
out ‘Father forgive them for they know not what they
do.’
Finally don’t be afraid. Take the next step in faith and God will get
to work. Don’t be afraid of the other
person. As you step out with God’s love
your own fears will begin to fade. You
are not going on your own. Remember it
is God’s love you are passing on and God’s love is sufficient. It has no
difficulty climbing the steepest hills.
His love won’t run out of steam.
And if needs be He can handle rejection. Jesus has already absorbed the pain when he
died on the Cross. Perfect love casts
out fear.
Perfect love is God’s love
flowing through us. Perfect love does
not require us to be perfect: only available.
Perfect love is love completed when we allow ourselves to be part of the
picture God wants to paint. Perfect love
drives away our fears of other people and ourselves. Perfect love is God’s plan for the Church.
Are you going to say yes to
God and take the initiative? I hope so.
Let us pray
Lord you know the names that
come to mind when we think about loving the people we find hardest to
love. Soften our hearts and give us
courage to complete your love by loving them. Amen