SERIES: “THE LOVE OF GOD”
MESSAGE: “BIBLICAL DEFINITION OF
GOD’S LOVE” Part 3
1 John 4:7-11
August 16, 2015
INTRODUCTION: I read an article from Danny
Akins’ commentary about love through the eyes of
children.
Noelle-age 7
“Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then
he wears it every day.”
Mary Ann-age 4
“Love is when your puppy licks your face even after
you left him alone all day.”
Karen-age 7
“When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up
and down and little stars come out of you.”
Rebecca-age 8
“When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t
bend over and paint her toenails anymore, so my
grandfather does it for her all the time, even when
his hands got arthritis too. That’s love.”
In 1 John 4:7-11 we get God’s perspective. Here
we learn that God is the source of love. In fact,
love is His very nature, and acting in love is His
essential character.
1 “The cross of Golgotha (place of the skull) is an
everlasting monument to the truth that our God is
love” Danny Akin
I. GOD’S LOVE PERSONIFIED AND
PERSONALIZED 7-8
“John is not teaching that non-Christians cannot
love. Sometimes they love better than some
Christians do. Remember we are all made in
God’s image. Everyone can give reflections of
the One whose image they bear.” Danny Akin
Howard Marshall said, “Human love, however
noble and however highly motivated, falls short
if it refuses to include the Father and Son as the
supreme objects of its affection.”
Such love fails to honor the greatest love
command of all, the command to love God with
all that you are. (Matthew 22:36-38).
Christianity is a religion (relationship) of love
because to the Christian God is love. God loved
to the extent that He gave His only Son (Jesus)
for us. Christians are called to love God above
all, and to love their neighbors as themselves.
God does not leave Christians to try to work up
this love by themselves but He sends the Holy
Spirit with gifts (1 Corinthians 13) and fruits
(Galatians 5:22).
2 To look at 1 John 4:7-11 as a whole, we will
find that God the Father is the God of love,
whose love is made known in the sending of
Jesus Christ for our sins and this love is perfected
in the love displayed among His people. We are
commanded to “love one another” but we are
also indwelled for this reality.
A. Loving One Another Testifies To The New
Birth
“love of God” - born again
Sam Storms says, “love one another” occurs
as an exhortation .7, a statement of
duty .11, and as a hypothesis in .12.”
(an assumption or conclusion).
Irish Rhyme
To live above,
With the saints I love,
O, wouldn’t that be glory.
But to live below,
With the saints I know,
That’s another story.
3 B. Loving One Another Testifies Of Intimacy
With God.
“knows God” - not that I know about God,
but to know Him personally.
Love’s source is in God, and as we love like
God loves, we give testimony we are
connected to the source. We demonstrate by a
life of love that we know God.
II.
GOD’S LOVE PROPITIATED IN JESUS
9-10
In Greek mythology they saw the gods easily
angered by humans. Humans sought to
appease that anger by offering sacrifices to
the gods.
The word propitiate is used 3 other times in
the New Testament.
Romans 3:25
“whom God set forth as a propitiation by
His blood, through faith, to demonstrate
His righteousness, because in His
forbearance God had passed over the sins
that were previously committed”
4 “Man is incapable of satisfying God’s justice
apart from Christ, except by spending eternity
in hell.” J. MacArthur
Hebrews 2:17
“Therefore, in all things He had to be made
like His brethren, that He might be a
merciful and faithful High Priest in things
pertaining to God, to make propitiation for
the sins of the people.”
By His partaking of a human nature, Christ
demonstrated His mercy to mankind and His
faithfulness to God by satisfying God’s
requirements for sin and thus obtaining for His
people full forgiveness.
1 John 2:2
“And He Himself is the propitiation for our
sins, and not for ours only but also for the
whole world.”
The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross satisfied the
demands of God’s holiness for the punishment
of sin.
The pardon for sin is offered to the whole
world but received only by those who believe.
5 The word means to turn away the wrath of
God by means of an offering.
David Allen says that “Propitiation” includes
6 things in its definition.
God’s holiness, wrath, justice, mercy, love
and grace.
1. Why does there need to be a propitiation in
the first place? All sin is an affront to God’s
holiness.
A common false teaching among some
liberals is that God’s only characteristic is
love and not a God of judgement, nor a God of
wrath. Orthodox belief sees rather that the
love of God is made richer and deeper when
seen in the context of the whole person.
2. God’s wrath is His settled disposition
against all sin. God is angry with sin and
sinners. God can be angry with sinners and
love them at the same time.
3. Sin violates God’s love, and His law
demands that justice be done. God is just. He
must punish sin.
4. God is also merciful. He is willing that
sinners not receive all they deserve for their
sins.
6 5. God is love. His love extends to all people.
God desires the salvation of all people. But
there is nothing sinners can do to earn God’s
forgiveness for their sins.
6. This is where God’s grace comes into the
picture. God does something for us that we
could never do for ourselves. He pays the
price for our sins. When Jesus died on the
cross, He became our substitute and took the
wrath of God against our sin upon Himself,
thus satisfying God’s justice in a payment for
sin. In Jesus’ death on the cross, God’s
holiness, justice, wrath, mercy, love and grace
all converge.
David Allen
“Propitiation teaches us that God personally
hates sin, sin is serious; it teaches us the
greatest of God’s love in which He provided
the offering to turn His wrath away.
Propitiation teaches us the truth that Christ’s
death satisfied the Father and was a
substitution for sinners. Propitiation teaches
us that God’s holiness required satisfaction
and that God’s love provided satisfaction.”
Danny Akin
7 John Stott in The Cross Of Christ,
“It is God Himself who in holy wrath needs to
be propitiated. God Himself who is holy love
undertook to do the propitiation and God
Himself who in the person of His Son died for
the propitiation of our sins. Thus God took
His own loving initiative to appease His own
righteous anger by bearing it His own self in
His own Son when He took our place and died
for us.”
“The gospel is that Jesus lived the life you
should have lived and died the death you
should have died, in your place, so God can
receive you not for your record and sake but
for his record and sake.” Tim Keller
“For the essence of sin is man substituting
himself for God, while the essence of salvation
is God substituting Himself for man. Man
asserts himself against God and puts himself
where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices
Himself for man and puts Himself where only
man deserves to be.” John Stott
8 III.
GOD’S LOVE PERFECTED IN
BELIEVERS 11-12
John 17:26
“And I have declared to them Your name,
and will declare it, that the love with which
You loved Me may be in them, and I in
them."
A. Ought
11
Out of gospel gratitude and connection to the
very source of love, we ought to love God and
love one another.
B. Others 12
“seen” – where we get our word “theater:”
implies a careful observing, a close scrutiny or
examination.
No one can see God in His essence, but we
can see God through the lives of those who
demonstrate His love to others.
“Mutual Christian love is the evidence that
“the unseen God, who was once revealed in
His Son, is now revealed in His people, when
they love one another.” John Stott
9 “Perfected” - brought to complete maturity;
it reaches its intended goal.
ILLUSTRATION: The word “amateur”
means “a lover.” When it comes to loving,
we should be amateurs, not professionals.
Amateur athletes do what they do for the love
of the game.
On June 25, 1967, more than 400 million
people in 26 countries watched, via satellite,
the Beatles perform the song “All You Need
Is Love.”
Close to the truth. What we really need is the
God who is love. We really need Jesus, who
was sent by the God who is love.
10