09 Why ‘Perfect Love Casts Out Fear’ Is Not About Your Feelings (1 John 4:7–19)

Speaker: Welcome to Wednesday in the Word, our serious Bible study applied to real life. Today is November 6th, 2013. Our passage is 1 John 4, verses 7 through 19, and our teacher is Krisan Marotta. This is the ninth message in our series on the book of 1 John. Krisan Marotta: Good morning. We're going to continue our discussion of 1 John chapter 4 today. And this section is really a continuation of what we looked at last week. So it's really kind of flowing from what we talked about last week. So let me just review where we are in the book. Remember, he starts with his preface and he says, We're the ones who saw and heard and touched and walked with Jesus. We have eyewitness and authority and firsthand experience. And so you can trust us apostles as the ones who have the authentic words of Christ. And so he's writing to say, to counter all the heresies that are springing up in the new church. And he's trying to say, here's how you can recognize the true from the false and the actual gospel Jesus taught from those from imposters. So he says, Trust us, we were the eyewitnesses. And then he begins, God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. So God is completely holy and good. There's no sin, no shadow, no darkness, no evil in him. Therefore, this is what will mark believers. And in chapter one, he says, we will know we're sinful. In chapter two, he tells us three things. He says we will long for the things of God. We will not long for the things of the world. So we will love the things of God, we will hate the things of the world, and we will confess that Jesus is the Christ. And then in chapter three, he expands on that and he says, we will pursue a lifestyle of holiness rather than a lifestyle of sin. And we will show this kind a kind of love that is self-sacrificing. And that's really the beginning of the discussion we're in now, that one of the marks of believers is a self-sacrificing kind of love that is willing to forfeit its own right. So loves regardless of what you get in return or how lovable the person is, and so on. And then he tells us the supreme example of this is Jesus Christ, who died in our place on the cross. And so in the beginning of chapter 4, he says it really matters that you confess that Jesus has come in the flesh or you believe who he is. So in chapter 3, he begins this discussion of there's a kind of love that marks believers in contrast to a type of hate that springs from rebellion to God. He explains Jesus is the supreme example of this kind of love, and therefore it matters what we think about him. So he begins with this warning in chapter 4: don't believe every spirit, test the spirits to see if they are actually confessing that Jesus is Lord. And now he's going to go on in the in the section we're going to look at today, which begins in 4 7, and we're going to go through 19. And he explains why I think this type of love is a mark of believer. And in a nutshell, what he's going to say is God's holy, and this type of love is part of God's holy character, and he's in the process of giving us his character. So we will begin to show this kind of love. So it's a little different than what we saw in chapter 2. Some of you may be thinking, well, John's kind of talking around in circles because he's talked about people loving the things of God and loving the light and loving those who walk in the light and hating the darkness, which he talked about in chapter two, but there he was coming from a different perspective. He was saying, because we have this particular understanding of our sinfulness, because we have come to understand what sin is and what holiness is and that we are not there, that will affect the things we love and the kind of love we we strive for. So he talks about those who love God know they're sinful, they want to be saved from their sin, they long to be freed from it, and they will love those who love God and love the things of God as well. So while there are many things that divide us, many things that make it difficult for us to love each other, you know, personality differences, culture differences, ethnic differences, life experience, all of that stuff can be barriers and make it hard for us to understand each other. But he says one of the things that isn't a barrier is our mutual love of Christ. That ought to be a bridge between us, not a barrier. So because of our understanding of sin, we will love the things of God, and that expresses itself in loving people. That was kind of the focus in chapter two. Um now I think the focus is more on why we are loving this. So, in from the perspective of um we are becoming like our father. So I think his argument in this section is basically like father like son, or we maybe we should say like father like daughter. Or maybe we'll be politically correct, like father like child. And he's saying, if your father loves you and values this kind, if your father values this kind of love and you're his child, you will reflect that value. So he uses the analogy that just as children are genetically like their parents and they look like their parents and they reflect that, so we will reflect the kind of love our father has. Or, you know, as children will mimic the mannerisms and the lifestyles of the parents that raise them, then we will mimic our father in that way. That's kind of the analogy he's um he's drawing on. So he's going to argue that the only people who can value this kind of self-sacrificing love are those that know God because this is part of what God's doing for us. He is conforming us to the image of Christ, to use Paul's language. He's fixing our broken choosers, to use my second grade analogy, so that we are becoming the kind of people who can now choose the right things, we can choose uh other focused love rather than selfish love, and he's changing us into kind the kind of people who hate our sin and long for holiness. So because he is making us more like him, we will begin to exhibit this kind of love. And that's basically what he's saying. And I think I wanted to lay all that out because there's a lot of interpretations of this section of 1 John that say, if you are a child of God, then you must be obedient, and you need to, you know, it's kind of a well, God did so much for you, the least you can do for him is now be obedient and love like he loves, and then they give you, you know, here's five steps to make you a more loving person. And I just don't think that's what's going on. I think it's the other way around that John would say this is all a gift. Um, left to ourselves. We are not, we cannot make ourselves into this kind of person, we cannot muster up this kind of love, but God is giving it to us because we're his children and because of the work of the Holy Spirit in us. Okay, so that's the passage in an overview. Let's start, let's dive in then to the verse specific verses. So we're going to start in 1 John 4, 7 and 8. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. So I'd paraphrase this something like, We're to love each other because love is part of God's character. And everyone who has a character marked by the kind of love that God has is a child of God, because God is now giving him that character. So the one who doesn't have a character marked by love, that's the one who does not love, is not a believer because God is making his children like himself. So I mean I think that's basically what's going on. So the language about those who are born of God and know God, I think he just means genuine believers, those who have saving faith, those who've um seen that they are sinful, long to be saved from it, and trust that the blood of Christ is what is going to get them there. And so his argument is those who um are genuine believers will love like God does. So love is from God, and when he says God is love, I think he means this kind of self-sacrificing love that we talked about last week. So not just, I mean, we just review a little bit. Last week we talked about how non-believers, of course, love. They have genuine friendships, they have long-term marriages, they, you know, or have deeply committed relationships. So how can you say that love is a mark of the believer? And I think he gives the example of Cain and Abel as the negative example and Jesus as the positive example, so that the example of loving someone who doesn't love you back, of loving someone when you get nothing in return, or when the person is unlovable. So Jesus dying for us right when we were in rebellion, that's the kind of love that is a mark of a believer. So love is from God, God is love. This kind of self-sacrificing love that he just talked about with Jesus as the example is part of God's character, and when God changes someone's heart to make him his child, part of being his child is beginning to love like this. So a person who is made in the image of God or has been adopted into his family as his child of his will show it. Just as an aside, there are four times when we get a God is statement in the Bible, which surprised me. I thought there were a lot more, but did you know there's only four? And three of them are from John. Two of them are right here in 1 John 4. He says, God is loved twice. Here in chapter 4. In chapter 1, he says God is light. So that's the other one. And then in the Gospel of John, which is 4.24, he says God is spirit. So we're told God is light, God is love, God is spirit. And the only other reference comes from Hebrews 12.29, quoting Deuteronomy, God is a consuming fire. It's kind of interesting. I'm not sure what that means, but I thought that was really interesting. So there's only four God is statements. And three are from John. Alright, so basically what he's saying in 4, 7, and 8 is if you claim to know God and you don't seek to be like him, then your claim is false, or at least suspicious. Because those who know God want to be holy as God is holy, and part of being holy is loving with this kind of self-sacrificing love. So we've those who've seen God and experienced their this love for themselves, the love that Christ demonstrated on the cross, they will seek to love like that. And then he's going to go on to describe what that love looks like. So, how do we know God is love? How do we know it? What kind of love is he talking about by what we've seen on the cross? So look at 9 and 10. By this, the love of God was manifested in us, that God sent his only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through him. And this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation of our sins. So thinking by this, so how do we know? I've just said God is love, and those who know him will love like him. So how do we know what kind of love this is? What kind of love am I talking about? That God sent his only begotten Son to die in our place. And I think that phrase, the love of God was manifested in us, is more that it was made clear to us. I think I may be wrong here, but I don't think it has the idea so much as it's put in us as it was made clear to us. Now we see it for what it is. We see it in a way we didn't see it before. So when Jesus died on the cross, that was a that brought a clearer picture of what kind of self-sacrificing love is. So it was manifested to us, I would say, or made clear to us. So not that we loved God, not that we did anything to cause him to love us. We didn't love him first, as he's going to clarify in 419. It wasn't that he was so moved by our repentance or so moved by what wonderful people we were, or some kind of divine spark, or something that he responded with love. The idea is he loved us first. So he is the first responder in that sense. He's not, his love is unprovoked, we might say. So he gave it to us without reason, without merit. We didn't deserve it. And as Paul makes clear in Romans 5, he talks about right at the point of our ungodliness, Christ died for us. So as we stood there mocking him, rejecting him, laughing at him, not understanding him, he still died for us. So what kind of love is we're talking about? What kind of love of God was made clear to us, the kind that was displayed on the cross? And he talks about he sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. So let's let's define propitiation. It's one of those theological words we I always get this word confused. There's when we talk about atonement, two words come up again and again, expiation and propitiation. So what's the difference? And I always have to look them up every time. I don't know why I can't remember them. I even have a little way I'm going to tell you to try to remember them, but I always have to look it up. So it must be one of those, you know, getting older things. I don't know. So part of what makes the words confusing is the there is a Greek word, but the same Greek word gets translated expiation in some verses and propitiation in other verses, and it's the same word. And so scholars kind of argue over which one they mean, and they both refer to the the atonement. So how do you kind of keep them apart? So here's my way of trying to remember them. So expiation starts with the prefix ex, which you know means out of or from. So expiation is removing something or taking something away. So in biblical terms, expiation is the taking away of guilt or the removal of my guilt. So you pay the penalty, you pay the price, and now the guilt is removed. It's taken away. So that's the offering of the atonement, is that our guilt before God is now removed. Propitiation, that's the prefix pro, and that means for, and so that is the change in God's at attitude because of the expiation. So it's the propitiation brings about a change in God's attitude. So he moves from being our enemy to being our father. He moves from being a God who displays wrath to us because we're guilty to a God who can now love us because we are no longer guilty. So we are restored to the restoring of the fellowship. So it's for the fellowship. Does that make sense? So it has propitiation is more the idea of being appeased. So if I do something to make you angry and I and I satisfy your anger, or I make amends, like I say, I break something and I I re restore it to you, that restoring is the expiation. I'm taking away my guilt. But when you turn around and say, Yes, I accept your apology, I forgive you, that's the propitiation. Your attitude toward me has now changed. So R. C. Sprawl summarizes it this way: expiation is the act that results in the change of God's disposition toward us. It's what Christ did on the cross. And the result of Christ's work of expiation is propitiation. God's anger is turned away. So the distinction is the same as that between the ransom that is paid and the attitude of the one who receives the ransom. See? So expiation is the ransom paid to take away our guilt. Propitiation is the acceptance of that offering such that we are no longer we are now forgiven and we are no longer held guilty. So they're pretty closely related. You can seem why it's easy to get them confused. So what he's saying here is uh the kind of love that we've seen, the kind of love I'm talking about that God displays to us was exemplified by Jesus' death on the cross, that he God sent his only son to die in our place, even when we were guilty, so that he might now love us, so that he might now bring us into fellowship. Alright, make sense? I'm not sure. Now you can go home and you know and impress your husbands and say, so do you know the difference between expiation and propitiation and see if they get the right answer? So fun facts to know and tell. Alright, so where are we? All right, so he's saying, what does the love of God look like? Well, God paid this incredibly high price for people who rejected him to ask that they be forgiven for that very rejection, that incredible self-sacrificing, other focused love that you get nothing back, that's the kind of love that God is, and that's a mark of a believer. So we didn't deserve it, we didn't cause it, it was God's gift from beginning to end. He loved us that much. And then we get 411, which is beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also, we also ought to love one another. So I think he's saying if God loved us in this self-sacrificing way, then we ought to love others in this self-sacrificing way. And this is where I think the biggest confusion comes in this um chapter because it sounds like he's saying um tit for tat kind of thing. Well, God loved you so much the least you could do is love your neighbor. Or God loved you so much, you know, you undeserving wretch, the least you could do is show a little gratitude, yeah, and be loving. And I don't think that's what he has in mind at all. Um I think he's saying if we understand how profound it was for Jesus to freely choose to offer himself as the propitiation for our sins, to die in our place, then we understand how profound God's love is, and this aspect of his character that he is now revealed, and what he in this and if we are his children, we see that, we experience that, and we long to be like him. So uh he gives us, I think, this incredibly high standard. And we can read this and think, well, who can do that? I mean, who can love and get nothing back? Who can, you know, just take, who can give to those who take and take and take and never respond with anything nice or don't even thank you for it? Or you're maybe they're just irritating or unlovable. You're telling me love has no boundaries, no restrictions, no qualifications, and that's what I ought to do? And the answer is yes, but we can't do that. I mean, that that's kind of the whole point of grace. And that's part of why I don't think John would turn around and say, okay, here's what you need to go out and do. You need to go out and be more loving because that will always be true and we will never make it. But rather he's talking about why would you even want to love like this? So this is the kind of love that looks foolish to the world. They look at this and go, Why why would you love someone who's unlovable? Why would you love someone who gives you nothing in return? What's the value in that? How are you looking out for number one? And I think that's more what he's addressing is why would anybody turn around and start loving someone who is unlovable? And he's saying, if you have saving faith and you now love the things of God and you love the light and you hate the darkness, you're gonna start to want to love like this, even though it looks foolish to the world, because you want to be like your father, you want to love with the same kind of love he loved you, and that reveals itself in your actions and your attitudes. So we ought to want to love like this. If you claim to be a follower of Jesus, and you you ought to love holiness, and one big part of holiness is this kind of love. So if you don't like that, that's a that's questionable. See what he's saying? I think that's what the spirit behind it, because of what's led up to this in the discussion, all the way going back to the middle of chapter three, he's saying, if God so loved us, we ought to love one another. If we claim to be his children and to want to be like him and to want to be holy like he is holy, then we will want to love like this, even though we are not good at it. Which actually is what I think he goes on to say. Look at 12 and 13. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us his spirit. So no one has seen God at any time. There's a couple of uh different ways you can take this. And I used to take this to be um no one has seen God like the false teachers claim. And there is a lot of evidence that part of what the false teachers were claiming is they saw God, and so you could trust them. So they had the inside scoop, they have this direct pipeline to God, and you can trust them, even though they were now teaching Jesus wasn't who he said he was, and so on. And and that could be that that is a good that's a valid interpretation. So he's directly swiping at the false teachers saying, no one has seen God at any time, um the as they claim. Um and but I that part of the reason that fails to persuade me is because he opened this whole book saying, we're the ones who saw him, we're the ones who were there and walked with him and have firsthand experience. Um and it doesn't in this flow of this argument, I don't know why he'd kind of step back and directly talk to the first teachers or the false teachers. I think what he's instead that this is more an idiom that means no one has loved like this. No one, none of us has reached this standard. And that what he means is I've just given you this incredibly high standard of this kind of love, and no one has really seen and understood it to its fullest measure. We're not there yet. We're on the Beginning of this journey, but we don't get it yet. So again, it's just one of those problematic phrases of exactly what does he mean by it. And that's the direction I'm leaning now. But you could probably persuade me that he's actually talking to the false teachers. I used to think that. So they're. But I think at this point what he's saying is we're not there yet. No one can reach this standard. However, if we love one another, God abides in us. Remember, we've talked about abide over and over as being remaining committed, persevering. So it's not a feeling that I work up, it's not an emotional state I get into. It is just persevering, hanging on, remaining faithful, remaining committed. So the opposite would be departing or abandoning or forsaking. So he's saying if God is with you, if he's working in your life, he's bringing about his promises, he's actually shaping and teaching and guiding you and growing you and conforming to you to the image of Christ. And we know this because we start to love like this, even though it's a foolish kind of love in the world's eyes. So no one's perfect, no one's going to reach this goal perfectly, no one has seen this kind of love perfectly and understood it and can now do it. But if we start to want to and strive for it and move toward, that's a sign that God is with us, that God has changed us. And his love is perfected in us, I think that means it will come to its attended purpose. So perfected often means brought to maturity or brought to its fullest state. So if you think of, you know, an acorn has the potential to become an oak tree, but it's not there yet. If an acorn is perfected, it is brought into its big fullest growth and maturity as an oak. And I think that's what he's saying there. His love will be perfected in us. It will be brought to its intended result. We will become the kind of people eventually who can love like this. So when I do show some compassion or generosity or self-sacrificing, I should rejoice because that's evidence that God is working in me, that I am his and he is mine. And his love, and we can have confidence that it will happen. I don't, I can't, I don't have to worry about messing it up or not doing it well enough, or you know, this passage gets taught is here's five ways you can make sure you're abiding, you know, and it's basically work up an emotional state. And I've one of the sermons I listened to used the analogy of, you know, we're an empty cup and you have to get filled. And here's five ways you fill yourself, and then when you're filled, that's abiding, and then when you abide, then you can, here's five ways you can love people, and it's like that is a lot of self-effort. Because it's all here's what I do to make myself uh abide or to make myself love or to take these steps. And I think John's perspective is just the opposite: saying, God is gonna get you there. It's a gift. He loved you when you didn't deserve it, and you don't have to start earning it now. He's going to give it to you. It's part of the process of making you his child. So by this we know we abide in him and he in us because he's given us his spirit. We know that we're gonna get there because his spirit is in us, growing us, shaping us, teaching us, and make changing us from the inside out. So he's making us the kind of people who will left love like this. So left to ourselves, we're not there. We wouldn't do it, but when we see evidence of it, it's evidence that God is with us, that he has chosen us. When we see his spirit active in our lives, making us the kind of people that we weren't before. Okay, in 14 and 15, we have seen and testified that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God. So that seems a little out of the place at first, but you have to remember this whole argument is based on the fact that the kind of love he's talking about was demonstrated by Jesus' death on the cross in our place. So if Jesus is not who he claimed to be, or if we reject the fact of who Jesus is, then this argument is is pointless. So he's reminding them look, you can try, I think the we in this verse is we apostles, um, the same we as in the first chapter, we saw him, we have firsthand acknowledged, we proclaimed it to you, and you can trust it. And so if you reject that Jesus was the Messiah, if you reject that he came as in the a physical body, or that he didn't really die, or he wasn't really God, or he wasn't really human, you've missed the boat because this is the kind of love that God is talking about. You're if you don't understand how the death of this peasant from Galilee made it possible for you to have mercy, then you you have missed the whole point of this kind of love. So it's integral to his discussion. We've seen and testify that the Father sent Jesus to be the savior of the world. That's the message of the gospel. He didn't send us to, he didn't send Jesus to save Israel from Roman political occupation. He didn't send Jesus to create a socialist utopia or a communist state or whatever. He sent his son to die in our place. And that's what the cross was all about. And you have to understand that. If you don't understand that, you've missed the whole point of this love. I think that's what he's saying in 14 and 15. So whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So you have to see, believe, and trust. I think that confess there is more than I just c I know it to be true or I mark it true-false on a test, but that I trust and believe it. I stand firm in it. So it changes me. So it as I think we talked about when we hit this word before, that it's, you know, the demons confess that Jesus was the Christ, but it didn't make any difference to them. They didn't trust him, they didn't acknowledge it in a way that changed their lives. And I think this word confesses carries not only you know it to be true, but you're counting on it. You stand firm in it, you acknowledge that it means something for your life and you want to change. Okay. How are we doing on time? Okay, so we've come 16 then. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. It sounds very repetitious, but I think he's saying as we have understood and put our trust in this kind of love that God has for us that was demonstrated by Jesus on the cross, then we will see that this is an intrinsic part of God's character, this kind of love, and those who persist in trusting in God are God's children and will remain and he will remain committed to them. So have come to know and believed. I think God made his love tangible through the saving work of Christ. We've seen it, we understand it, we accept it, and we believe it. It's no problem for us to confess that Jesus is Lord or to preach Christ crucified because we recognize this is what it's all about, this profound display of love. It wasn't a mistake, it was part of the plan. It wasn't an accident, it was what was necessary to save us. So who's the child of God? The one who recognizes this, the one who confesses it, and continues to remain true to that and believe it. All right. By this, love is perfected with us so that we this is verse 17, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because as he is, so also are we in the world. So by this, I think refers backwards to 16, insofar as we persist in trusting that God's love was demonstrated for us by Christ on the cross, by that love is perfected, that is brought to its intended result, brought to maturity, reach its intended dispers purpose. Um, and I think that is faith, that in this life God's goal is to give us a strong, mature, abiding faith such that we continue to trust Him and count on Him, we will be made holy in the age to come. When we make progress toward holiness, but but at this point it's more crucial that we have faith, because if we don't have faith, we don't have any place in the kingdom. So he's saying, by the where am I? So if and if we have faith in Jesus, we have no cause to fear judgment. We have no reason to fear that we are now we are under God's wrath. We have no reason to shrink from his holiness because we're sinful people, because we know that we're forgiven. We know that we've been bought with a price. And if you look at the stories in the Old Testament, when prophets encounter the holiness of God, what's the first thing they do? They usually cry out, Oh, woe is me, or I'm in trouble. So Isaiah has a vision of God on his throne. This is in Isaiah 6, 5, and he says, Woe is me, for I am lost, for I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. That's the reaction to holiness. Oh dear, I'm in trouble. And John's saying, if you have faith in Jesus, that no longer needs to be your reaction. You have no reason to fear judgment. So that reaction of woe is me, because of Christ, you can have confidence. You need not shrink. You have been saved from the wrath of God. And if you understand what that kind of love meant and what it displayed, then you no longer need to fear judgment. And then in 18, there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. This is one of those verses you want to keep in context. John is not saying that if you believe in Christ, you will never be afraid again of anything. He is talking about judgment. And it's very clear from the previous verses that the kind of fear he's talking about is the fear of God's wrath. So he's saying there's no reason to fear what God in his love has sent out to do for us. God's love for us will be brought to it at the end. He intended it, that is, to remove our guilt, to uh pay the price for our sins so that we can be once again be his children, and there's no reason to fear punishment any longer. There's no reason to fear his wrath. So perfect love casts out fear, is the idea is as this is matured in you and you begin to understand more and more what Christ did for you, you will no longer fear God's wrath. You will no longer fear judgment. You may fear what's going to happen on Friday, but that's another question. So because fear involves punishment, I think he's saying, well, you why would you be afraid? Well, you'd be afraid if you think I have to do this myself. If I have to earn it, if I have to do something, keep the law enough, or be good enough, or pray enough, or study enough, or if I have to get myself there, then of course I'm gonna fear punishment because how will I know I will ever get there? How will how can I trust in my own self-effort to get me where I want to go? So that kind of self-effort would definitely to fear and punishment, but he's saying we're not there. Um yes, we're not good enough, we're undeserving, we're selfish, we're unworthy, and that that ought to scare me. But the glorious news of the gospel is that's not the issue. The issue is not how worthy am I, because that question has been answered. And the answer is I'm not. I'm not worthy. Now the question is, does God love me enough to save me anyway? And that answer has also been answered. We've seen it in the cross, and that answer is yes. So we have no reason to fear because God has shown that he is willing to give us what we do not deserve, and that he is willing to withhold what we do deserve. So he gives us grace, forgiveness, and the cross, and he withholds and turns away his wrath and anger. So that's the exciting news in the gospel. So I hope you see that his all of that, I mean, the language is kind of simple, but there's these really profound concepts, and he keeps talking about love and talking about the cross, and then going back to love, and then going back to the cross, and I think it's all wrapped up with this is the kind of love we're talking about, and it was exemplified by the cross. And those of us who understand and have been given the eyes to see what the cross means, we will now want to love like that. Okay, so let's wrap this up with some applications. So so what? So what have we learned so far in chapter four? And I'm gonna give you two things. The first one I think is I hope you see by now, I hope I've convinced you that when John talks about abiding in God's love throughout this book, he is not talking about getting myself into a state where I feel lovable or I feel worshipful or I feel something. I it I don't think he ever intends to refer to an emotion. I mean, I may not feel safe or I may not feel loved, but I know what is true. So despite my feelings, I am committed to this belief that what God has done for me on the cross, what it means in understanding it. So that I would say abiding is a is a commitment almost. It's a belief, it's standing firm and be strong. So the false teachers are not abiding in God's love because they're turning away from the true gospel. They're looking at this supreme display of God's love on uh as shown in Jesus' death on the cross, and they're saying, that's not important. We don't, you know, it doesn't matter who Jesus is, we don't care. He was just a good rabbi who got caught by the Romans. So, you know, just you don't need that cross stuff. And John is saying, you don't get it. That's important. That's what abiding is. Abiding is recognizing what God did on the cross and standing firm for it. Because that was his supreme display of his love. So what's the basis of your confidence? What's the basis of your hope? What are you counting on in judgment day? It's not how you feel, but what you believe, what you know to be true. And that's the real question then. Do you see the cross for what it is? Do you count on it? So it's not even a question of how well am I loving? You know, am I being a loving person this week? I mean, because we can muster that up, especially for people we like and people who love us back and appreciate what we do, you know. And but when you get and start talking about that love that has no boundaries, that that loves your enemies or those who hate you, or who or people that don't even thank you, or you, or maybe they just mock you. How how do you do that? So that's I think my second application. I think the wrong response to this is to start going home and say, is there someone out there I haven't loved the way I should? You know, and and then try to make your lists of how you're gonna be better. Let me just tell you the answer is yes for all of us. You don't need to debate it. There is someone out there, I can guarantee, um, that we haven't loved the way we ought. And there always will be in this life, this side of heaven. We're just not gonna be perfect in that yet. But I think so. The more interesting question is why is there someone out there that that you haven't loved the way you ought? So um, are there people out there you haven't loved the way you ought? Because you fundamentally hate this kind of love. You fundamentally think it's silly or foolish or not a good thing, and that you better look out for number one, because there's no point in loving someone who doesn't love you back. That's a red flag, that's a warning sign. And I if you're a believer, that should not be the case. So the more probably the more valid answer is why is there someone out there you haven't loved the way you should? Because God isn't finished with you yet. Because you're a work in progress, and you're not, he's not done yet. So we are finite, we have limited time and space and resources and energy, and there are countless thousands of billions of opportunities out there to be loving, and we are not the saviors, we're not gonna do it all. Um we can't love the world like God loved the world. So I wouldn't, I would think the wrong response is to go home and start beating yourself up for all your missed opportunities. Yes, they're out there. There are times when you'll be unloving and you don't have the resources to meet needs. There's also going to be times when you're when you do have the time and the energy and the resources and you don't do it. I mean, you know, I you just think about, you know, the last time you didn't want to serve your husband or didn't want to do what you had to do, and it's like I just you just don't want to because we're sinners. We're not there yet. And I think what John would say to us is okay, the next time you fail, stop and examine it. Ask us what's changing. And your attitude should begin to change from, oh well, what's the big deal? You know, there's nothing in it for me, or who cares, that's not a problem. So it should change from that kind of an attitude to an attitude of, oh, rats, missed opportunity or grief over how I I wasn't the person I ought to be. And it may begin just with the regret or the remorse or the uh realizing I could have done better, then it kind of moves to maybe some awkward or feeble attempts to love the right way. That may maybe they'll even backfire or get misunderstood. But it that you keep trying anyway, and eventually it grows into a genuine compassion and where you can love someone who's unlovable. And there are those wonderful moments. I mean, to me, the Christian life is filled with two kinds of moments. The kind where I think, oh no, I'm even worse sinful than I knew, you know, where your sin hits you in the face, you know, oh, how bad is that? And then there are times where you see yourself do something and you think, wow, five years ago I couldn't have done that. I did that, wow. And rejoice in those. That's God at work in your life. And the and the right response to those is, hey God, look how good I am. The right response is, thank you, Lord, look at what you've done in my life. You're changing me. This is part of the gift, this is evidence that I'm yours. Okay, so will we ever love perfectly in this life? No, not this side of heaven. But we ought to want to, we ought to strive to move for it. And just as almost an aside, remember sometimes love doesn't look like love. Sometimes it looks like you're doing the wrong thing, but it may be the right thing. And you know this if you're a parent. You know, there are times when you have to let your children make a mistake, or you choose not to intervene because you recognize they have to go through that suffering and that struggle will have great value in their lives, even though you want to rush in and make it all perfect. And and from the outside, an observer might look at you and go, Well, why are you being so unloving as to not step in and intervene in your child's life? And sometimes you have to say, That is loving. I am doing what's right. Um sometimes we have to fail to learn, just as God lets us fail so that we learn. Sometimes we have to do that with our friends and especially our children. So it's complicated, all that is to say. Sometimes it doesn't always make us doing showing that kind of love doesn't always make you feel perfect, or it doesn't make you feel comfortable, and it doesn't you always alleviate uh suffering, but still it might be the right thing. Let's just stop there. Let me uh pray for us and then I'll give you a chance to ask questions. Father, we thank you that you love first, and that we can only show this kind of love because you first showed it to us, and that um what a supreme example of grace and mercy and compassion the cross was. I just pray that even though it may seem like old news to us, that you would show us afresh what it means, show us the depth of of how great a sacrifice it was, how much we stand in need of a savior, and how great your love is to fill that need. And that we just pray that as we go through our days and our lives and our weeks, that you would be giving us the joy in this kind of love, helping us see the value, and making us more and more people who not only want to express this kind of love, but are able to do it in our small ways and in our lives and in the calling that you have for us. In Jesus' name. Amen. Speaker: Thanks for listening to Wednesday in the Word. For more information about this message or additional talks in this series, please visit our website, Wednesdayintheword.com. We pray that this has been a blessing to you, and you will join us again soon.