1 John 4:7-12
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.9 This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him.10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.
1 John 4:7-12 GOD IS LOVE
Springford Baptist Church: November 20, 2022.
As we begin to decorate our homes for Christmas, a whole surge of memories can well up in us.
We are likely to recall who has given us various decorations over the years. We are likely to travel back to childhood Christmas memories and the warmth of family and friends.
I have special memories of Sunday School Christmas Concerts and Candle Light Services.
I still remember our girls choir at East Oxford Baptist Church and our annual Candle Light service as we would approach Christmas. We would be practising songs each Saturday morning leading up to the Candle Light Service. Our white choir gowns with freshly ironed red satin bows would be carefully hung for us to wear. When we arrived at the church on that Sunday evening we would go downstairs to get ready while everyone else was being seated upstairs listening to Christmas music being played on the piano and organ. As the beginning of the service approached, we would be lined up at the door to upstairs and each holding a single candle with a tinfoil wrapped star as the base to avoid wax dripping where it shouldn’t. There was such anticipation in the air and in our thoughts.
We would sing “O Come All Ye Faithful” as we proceeded up the aisle and a variety of Christmas songs and readings would follow. Then at the conclusion of the service, we would process out while everyone was singing, “Joy to the World”.
I can still vividly recall the sights and sounds and experiences of this yearly event. At the heart of all this was the message that GOD IS LOVE. This is why He sent his Son Jesus and this is why we celebrate at Christmas the birth of Jesus.
This has been the consistent message of our Christmas Eve services here at Springford Baptist Church. I have many memories of these meaningful gatherings over these last several years. We have been affirming and proclaiming this hope filled message that GOD IS LOVE.
Even during the pandemic, when for the last 2 years we have not held a Christmas Eve service here at the church, we have still turned on our porch lights and rung bells at our church and at home to express our moving realization that GOD IS LOVE.
We know when we are loved!
Love demands to be expressed. It is so much more than words.
This Scripture from 1 John 4 declares, “This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him.” (1 John 4:9) When Jesus, God’s Son entered our world, He came to deliver this message and to assure everyone that it really is true that GOD IS LOVE.
When life is filled with warm and pleasant memories and we are enjoying family and friends around us, then it is easy to believe that GOD IS LOVE.
God’s love for us does not diminish when we are facing struggles and disappointments and when there are health issues and other unresolved challenges that cause us to feel anxious and concerned.
We can still experience the certainty of God’s love for us when we are troubled by what is going on around us and within us.
Sometimes people have the idea that the Christmas season will magically brush away the heartaches of peoples’ lives. This is not the case.
God, in His infinite love, sent His Son Jesus to live among us in this chaotic and complicated world. Jesus came to demonstrate that GOD IS LOVE no matter what is happening on this planet earth.
When we are determined to know God, then we can come to the conclusion that GOD IS LOVE.
Only genuine love could have compelled our God to send His Son into our world to give His life for us.
GOD IS LOVE becomes real and believable for us in the person of Jesus.
As 1 John 4:7 maintains, “love comes from God.”
If we want to know what love looks like, we look to God.
If we want to know what love feels like, we look to God.
If we want to know what love accomplishes, we look to God.
In our desire to know God, we conclude that GOD IS LOVE.
It is a life changing experience to become convinced that not only is it true that GOD IS LOVE, it is true that God loves each of us always and forever.
“This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (! John 4:10)
Our God took the initiative and loved us before we ever knew or acknowledged Him. That is a powerful love.
Then we take that powerful love and are given responsibility to do something with the fact that GOD IS LOVE and that He has shown His love for us through His Son Jesus.
11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.
When we love each other, God does live in us and His love accomplishes what He always intended. Knowing that GOD IS LOVE does not complete the story of knowing God until we receive God’s love and then determine to live our lives sharing God’s love.
Notice the clear indication of I John 4:8, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” We can say that we want to know God, but unless our lives display His love we really don’t know God. Our decision to enter into loving others as God loves them is what can enable us to know God. Love is the vehicle that makes this possible.
As we come again to this Christmas season when we highlight that God sent Jesus into our world, it will be essential to remember that God’s pure motivation in sending Jesus was and is love.
When we have hard times and wonder why, we can still know that GOD IS LOVE.
The truth that GOD IS LOVE does not depend on our lives being easy.
There is purpose in us preparing our hearts again to recall and to see evidence today that GOD IS LOVE.
Over these next 4 weeks leading up to Christmas, we will be lighting Advent Candles of HOPE, PEACE, JOY, and LOVE.
Each of these candles with shine the light of truth that when we look to Jesus God’s Son, who is the Light of the World, we receive the illuminating truth of our lives that GOD IS LOVE.
The candle at the very center of the Advent wreath is the Christ candle. We want Jesus Christ to be at the very center of our lives so that we will keep knowing, remembering and living that GOD IS LOVE!
Why do we celebrate Christmas? Because: GOD IS LOVE!