PBPC Update - Sunday Sermon
- May 10, 2020 - "All You Need Is Love"
 | Fruit of the Spirit - Part 1, 1 John 4:7-16 |
Sermon – "The Mark of a Christian," John 15:1-8
May 10, 2020
Chris Coon, PBPC
Good morning and welcome to the fifth Sunday of Easter. During this season we are learning about the fruit of the Spirit, the good qualities that are produced in our lives as we experience the new life that Jesus gives us. As we've discussed the last couple of weeks, this fruit (which are listed in Galatians 5:22 as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control) are the natural result of our being spiritually connected to Jesus, as branches are connected to a vine (John 15.) God is the gardener who works in our lives so that we can produce even more good fruit.
Today we are looking at the first and most important fruit, which is love. In fact, love is so important that all the other fruit could be considered as varieties of love; we are told elsewhere that love is patient, love is kind, etc. (1 Corinthians 13.) So it is difficult to overemphasize just how important love is in the life of a Christian. The apostle John speaks of love more than anyone else, and it is the major theme of his first letter. Here is what he says in 1 John 4:7-16
7Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.
13By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. 15God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. 16So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.
Definition of Love
We hear the word love used so much in our culture – in songs, movies, and advertisements – that it is very helpful for us to define what it is that we are talking about. This is especially true since Greek has at least four different words that all get lumped together in the English word love. When we speak of love in our language, we could be referring to strong affection, familial bonds, or sexual attraction. But the word that John – and Jesus himself – used to speak of love is agape. I'm sure you've heard it before.
Agape refers to a pure, willful, sacrificial love that intentionally desires another's highest good. The other forms of love (affection, desire, friendship or family bonds) might include aspects of it, but agape love transcends them all. This is the highest form of love because it chooses to be invested in the good and well-being of another, not because of what that other has done, will do, or can do in return. It is a love that is chosen and is an act of the will, and is even willing to sacrifice for the benefit of the other.
God's Love for Us
Agape love is the love that God has for us. In fact, John says here that God is love. This doesn't mean that God is just a big bundle of good feelings, or that God is an impersonal force that is present when we are all nice to each other. Rather, John is telling us that there is no other word that more fully describes what God is like than agape – God is all about pure, willful, sacrificial love that desires our highest good. That desires your highest good.
How does that make you feel? It should make you feel really good. We pick up all kinds of distorted images of ourselves and value (or lack of value) from the world around us. We come to believe that people either like us or love us based on the worth that they see in us – either because we are attractive, or successful, or even because we are such a good person. Or because of what we've done for them, or what we will do. So, when we don't feel attractive, or we feel that we've failed, or we know that we really aren't good people, we don't feel that we are lovable.
We inevitably project these same attitudes onto God – God loves me when I'm good, successful, or attractive. But God does not play by these rules. God is the God of agape love – He does not love you because you are worthy, because you are good, or because you are attractive. He loves you because He chooses to, because that is who He is, and whether you deserve it or not. He loves you even when you fail. He desires your well-being and your highest good. And nothing can make God stop loving you.
This of course is the reason that God sent Jesus into the world, to demonstrate this love to us. And the ultimate demonstration was his death on the cross – for us, that we might have eternal life.
So how do you feel now? That kind of love has the power to transform your life. But most of us have a hard time receiving it, believing this is for real; and even when we do believe it and receive it, it is so easy to fall back into our old patterns of feeling that we need to earn God's love, and that God couldn't possibly love us when we fail. So, this becomes something that we need to become convinced of again and again and again – God loves you unconditionally and seeks your good.
Our Love
Now I've spent our time so far talking about God's agape love, when the fruit of the Spirit that we're talking about is the love that is produced in our lives. But there are some good reasons for this. First, John tells us that we love because God loved us first. God is the ultimate source of our love. He loves us first, and as we receive His love and his grace and his forgiveness, our hearts change and we begin to become loving people. But we don't have to generate this love on our own in response to a command; our experience of being loved by God is the impetus and the source of our own ability to love. So perhaps what you need today is to open your heart to receive the love that God has for you.
Second, there is a link between God's love for us and our love for others. The person who has really received and experienced God's love will demonstrate this through their love for others. In fact, John puts it in stark terms: if we don't love, we don't know God. God doesn't stop loving us, but it is as if we can not receive God's love if we are unwilling to share it.
This week my dishwasher stopped working. I opened it up and realized that the bottom was filled with water that hadn't drained out. I opened up the drain and cleaned the filter and finally discovered that a part had come loose, and this was keeping the pump from working. Since the water in the dishwasher could not be pumped out, the dishwasher would not let any more water in. Once I had re-installed the part correctly, the pump worked again, the water flowed again, and the dishwasher functioned as it was supposed to.
God created each of us in God's image. Since God is love, it makes sense that you and I are made to be loving people. Our love has its source in God, but when that love becomes blocked and love is not flowing out of our lives, we are unable to receive more of God's love. We are no longer functioning as we were intended to. There can be a number of reasons for the blockage: an inability to forgive someone, a self-centered focus, or a lack of understanding of just how much we are loved. What might be blocking the love of God from flowing through your life?
Our Purpose
It is not too much to say that our purpose in life is to love. If the two greatest commandments for our lives are to love God and to love our neighbor, then everything we do in our lives is to fulfill one or both of these ends. The decisions we make, the work we do, the way we spend our time and our money will be for these purposes. This is what we were created for.
For the good fruit of love to be produced in our lives – the most important and life-giving fruit of the Spirit – we must be people who both know the love of God, and are passing it on to others. Remember, it is God's love in us that allows us to love others. But if we are unable to receive God's love, or if we are unable to love others, God's love cannot flow through us and we cannot bear this good fruit.
But remember that God wants to love you, and God wants to make you a loving person. Ask God today to help you experience and trust in His love, and also ask God that He would help you to become a loving person. As scripture tells us, love never fails.
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