LET US LOVE ONE ANOTHER

LET US LOVE ONE ANOTHER

1 John 4:1-21

Key verse: 1 John 4:7, 8

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

In the first part of chapter 4 Apostle John again alerted his readers not to believe every spirit but to test them to see if they are really from God. Second as we have learned for the last seven weeks: “Let us love one another” is a repeated theme throughout the book of 1 John. In 1 John 2:7-11 John teaches those who love walk in the light while those who hate walk in the dark and do not know where they are going. Now in this chapter Apostle John takes another angle to show our need to love one another. He teaches we need to love one another to know God.

Part 1 Test the Spirits

Look at verse 1: Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the sprits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” J.K. Rowling’s’ mega hit book series “Harry Potter” is evident especially young people have an insatiable hunger for the spiritual world. From beginning to end her writings are filled with spirits, witches, warlocks, and all kinds of magic. I believe what troubles many preachers about young impressionable readers of Harry Potter are that they may grow to believe the spirit world of Harry Potter over the teachings of the Holy Spirit. Apostle John writes we should not believe every spirit but test every spirit. The reason is many spirits to not come from God. If they’re not from God then the only other one they can be from is Satan himself. These evil spirits speak through people who call themselves prophets. Actually they are false prophets. Even though their message might be different from each other, their goal is all the same. Satan’s goal through his false prophets are to raise up as large as possible antichrist following. Yesterday a Jehovah’s Witness knocked at my door while writing this message. The man and his son were well dressed. Nevertheless I already knew their belief. Long ago I had tested their teaching. They do not believe Jesus Christ to be God incarnate as John 1 teaches. I knew I couldn’t change his mind so I quickly ended our meeting telling him I do not believe in Jehovah’s Witness doctrine. However before shutting the door I suggested to the son to study the Bible using the New International Version.

Back in the 1970’s there was a charismatic evangelist. He helped the poor. He wasn’t a racist. The man embraced all types of people. After not too long he had a following of hundreds of people who trusted all their wealth to him. By the late 1970 he moved his flock to Guyana with the promise of making a utopia. Instead of leading his sheep to a utopia this man led more than 900 of his flock to commit mass suicide by drinking grape juice laced with arsenic.

Apostle John writes: “Do not believe every spirit, but test the sprits to see if they are from God. How then do we test these sprits? John teaches us in verses 2, 3. “This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.” If you give this test to sincere Jehovah’s Witnesses, Muslims, Moonies you will find they all fail the test. For to ask someone if they believe Jesus Christ came in the flesh is asking them if they believe God became human like you and me. All of them deny this. When we do acknowledge this truth it means we believe that Jesus is the perfect God and at the same time a perfect human. Without faith, it is impossible to believe this truth because it is beyond our comprehension. When Dr. Todd Beal preached his message on the entire book of Job a few weeks ago I remember him including in his message his personal belief Jesus Christ is God incarnate. Even though he is a PhD professor in one of the finest Christian colleges in America, he confessed he cannot understand how Jesus Christ can be both God and man. He simply believes it by faith. On the other hand those who have the spirit of the antichrist deny this truth. Once they deny this truth we should shut the door, walk away. Otherwise if we stay around their twisted teaching of the Bible will end us deceiving us.

Now for a brief moment let us think about why it is important to believe Jesus is the incarnation of God. For Jesus to save us he has to be a perfect mediator between God and sinful human beings. In the legal world they have a saying: “Only a fool will try to defend himself.” It can also be said only a fool tries to defend himself before the most Holy God. Quite literally Jesus is our God appointed perfect advocated between God and us. Each of us has a judgment day coming before God Almighty. On that day we most definitely want to make sure Jesus Christ is our advocate before God Almighty. Jesus is God’s sacrifice to take our sins away when he died on the cross. God then raised him to life and appointed him now as our indestructible High Priest to mediate between his holiness and our sinfulness. We have many types of problems in this life, most fundamentally before God; sin is our number one problem. God very graciously in the flesh provided Jesus his Son as the one and only solution to solve our sin problem. This is why we must not believe an antichrist message. We want to live by faith in Jesus, die by faith in Jesus with the living hope to be like the perfect resurrected Jesus when Jesus comes to raise us from the dead.

Look at verse 4: “You, dear children are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” These words are for the believer who is trying to make a positive impact for God on the world around them. Those who do this often find they are a target of many misunderstandings and lies from the very world they are trying to help. At these times they must hold onto this word God believing they will overcome all opposition because the one who is in them, the Holy Spirit is greater than the one who is in the world.

Part 2 God is love

Look at verse 7: Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.” Now John goes back to his favorite teaching for Christians which is to love one another. We will look at three reasons in this chapter why John again calls us to love one another.

First, to love one another is to know God. In verse 8 John writes “God is love.” He writes these same words in verse 16: God is love.” God’s greatest of character traits at least in His eyes is his character to love. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 tells us: If we really want to come to know the God of the bible very personally we must love one another. Look at 7b-8: “Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God because God is love.” Simply put we should love one another because quite often this is the only way we can know God. We know the Pharisees of Jesus’ day spent their entire life with their head and shoulders bent over scripture in the noble search to know God. Yet instead of growing to know God they killed God’s Son because they never challenged themselves to put into practice the command to love. People have no problem putting into practice the command an eye for and eye. Even murders can practice an eye for an eye.

Let us ask ourselves why it is so difficult to love one another? One answer: to love one another means to sacrifice for one another. Sacrifice is at the heart of God’s love for us. Look at verses 9, 10. “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. This is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” Now we would think God in his great Almighty power could love us without the need to sacrifice the most precious of all persons his one and only Son Jesus Christ. Our Bible teaches us this greatest of all sacrifices was the only way God could love us. God teaches us to love is to sacrifice. To sacrifice is to love. We all know synonym to sacrifice is pain. I remember this one missionary volunteered to go to the Rhode Island Metro station to pick up his bible student because the student agreed to meet him there. It took this missionary 45 min to drive there. He waited there for another 45 minutes, but the student never showed up. Finally about three hours later I see him walk into the bible center. His face looks the face of pain. His eyes had lost that sparkle and were replaced with exhaustion. His mouth was like the mouth of a person grimacing in pain after he had been punched in the stomach. His only words were: “I wasted my entire day for nothing.” Looking back the only logical reason I can find this missionary would sacrifice his time for that unfaithful student was to put into practice God’s word to love another. Another time I had just finished an evening one to one bible study with a student on John 10 about Jesus the good shepherd. Jesus in that passage announced in verse 11: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” Frankly I have always found this teaching too extreme. In my way of thinking a shepherd is worth more than all his sheep. I could never see the logic why a shepherd would lay down his life for one dump, unthankful sheep. But there it was in read letters Jesus saying He was the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. Later that night around 10 pm one of the brothers in my prayer house asked me if I could go to DC and help his friend move into an apartment in a very bad neighborhood in DC. I know for a fact if I hadn’t just finished studying John 10 I would have said no way. But Jesus words: “The good shepherd lays down his sheep empowered me to overcome all my fears and tired body. By faith I went into DC which at that time was recognized as the murder capital of America and helped my brother’s friend move into the apartment. Bible study is one of the best ways to come to know God. Not withstanding to come to know God’s character of love often means not only bible study it also means we must love one another.

Second, we should love one another because God first loved us. Look at verse 19: “We love because he first loved us.” The initiative to love others should come from this knowledge that God first loved us. I know for a fact the God of the Bible did not wait for me to love him first. He first sent his servant to me to study the bible with me and love me unconditionally. I was very proud and only had the most bases of ambitions. Nevertheless God loved me first, he accept me first and welcomed me just as I am. He did the same for all of you also. God’s first love, his first initiative to love us when we were at our most unlovable should be a great encouragement to help us to love and not hate our brothers. We know some of the greatest healing words for fractured relationships are: “I’m sorry, I apologize. You’re right. I’m wrong.” Nevertheless husband and wife continually stay angry with each other because each refuses to be the first to say I’m sorry. Friendships stay broken because neither side refuses to call up the other and first say: “I apologize.” God didn’t do anything wrong. Nevertheless he first sent his Son to die for our sins while we were still his enemies. If the great God can make the first initiative to make matters right with us I believe we can follow his example and love others first. We can say hi first. We can say sorry first. We are not putting ourselves in lower than our great Almighty God did when he first loved us.

Third, we should love one another to drive away all fear. Look at verses 16b-18 Read. When we live in love by loving one another we can have complete confidence on the Day of Judgment. By replacing our bitterness or fear for others with loving them we begin to drive out all fear within us. Personally I have always had compassion for the outlaw Billy the Kid around the time of 1880. He had no father. He lived in a rough and very dangerous area down in New Mexico. Once he killed two men who had killed his employer who had kind of become a father figure in his life. At that time in his life he was right with the law. The law held him in prison but really only had plans to testify against those who killed his employer. Nevertheless daily his fear within him grew. He lost all confidence the law could protect him. Therefore he broke out of jail and became a fugitive who lived in fear. As he continued to try to solve his problems with fear he killed two deputies which sealed his fate. Two months later he was killed by the law enforcement community. That young man had very noble and courageous qualities but because he was never counseled to have faith in God, prayer and overcome evil with love his life ended very tragically.

Look at verse 20. Is there ever a time we can righteously hate our brothers? Not according to this verse. We should not fear our brother or hate our brother. The Bible teaches vengeance belongs to God. If they are really in the wrong God will punish them. As for us, God commands us in verse 21. “Whoever loves God must also love his brother”
In our passage today we learn we should not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. Moreover we are taught God is love. We learn to know our God of love we must love one another. I pray today’s bible passage may help us overcome our own fears or hatred so that we can obey God’s command to love one another.