Love Matters
“All you need is love” sang the Beatles.
Susan Boyle, the winner of Britain’s got talent in 2009 is now Sony’s no. 1 artist, worth £11m and yet still lives in the council house in which she grew up in West Lothian. Despite being horribly bullied at school she says she always felt surrounded by love from her parents and 9 older siblings, “If there’s someone who’s loved you and really believed in you it’s everlasting. That love never goes away, it stays with you. It’s a gift.”
On the other hand Jimmy Savile, who died a week ago, said that he had “No emotions, feelings aren’t logic…. I just want to get things done.” He expressed love in a practical way running hundreds of marathons and doing many hours of voluntary work, giving away 90% of his fortune.
Socrates, watching his disciple, Plato, talking. Can see the freckles on Plato’s face, his intelligent eyes, his seriousness, his confidence. Suddenly struck by the thought, “If I knew an archer were to shoot him, I would step in front of him without hesitating and I’d take the arrow in my chest.” He knew this without a doubt. And then came a feeling that surprised him, “I was smiling because I was truly happy.” He later explained this by saying that you find what you love when you find that you would sacrifice yourself for them.
Love matters
Most of us have a rough idea of what love is and deep down most of us think it is a good thing although some are less likely to express it in words than others.
One of the motifs that weaves its way through John’s writing is the centrality of the command to love one another.
Musical motifs that repeat. A spiral/circular speech rather than a linear line of thinking.
John, the beloved disciple, to the people he has pastored in and around Ephesus, a great ancient Mediterranean sea port in what is now Turkey. It was written sometime in the second half of the first century, about 40 years after Jesus. If you have read the gospel of John the language in the letters he writes is familiar. He uses a similar vocabulary and pursues similar themes. Here is a man whose life was turned upside down and rescued by his encounter with Jesus by the shores of Lake Galilee a generation earlier. He had been one of Jesus’ best friends (cf 1 John 1:1-7) and had gone on to become one of the towering figures of the early church.
1 John 3:11-20
John reminds us of Jesus’ command to love one another and sets this up as the characteristic that distinguishes someone who follows Jesus from someone who doesn’t.
What sorts of loves are there?
· The sort of love that fuels our media
· romantic love
· sexual love
· pleasure (I love chocolate)
· family love
· passionate love (I love my country).
CS Lewis once tried to define love by different emotional content: affection, friendship, romance and unconditional love.
Unconditional love is the closest to what John is describing here.
He is using the word agape which is a Greek word used in the bible to describe a kind of love which lasts longer, goes deeper, doesn’t depend on feelings, can’t be manipulated, earned or lost and which changes your life – forever.
It is the deepest longing of our soul and it is found only when our very being re-connects with the One who made us.
It isn’t a temporary emotion that rises up in us in response to something nice being done to us. No it is a deep response to being on the receiving end of the tsunami of grace and mercy that is the love that comes from God our creator and father.
God’s will is characterised by a deep, merciful, unending love.
Philip Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace,
“There is nothing you can do to make him love you more and there is nothing you can do to make him love you less”.
Love matters
John is making it clear that when we receive God’s love in the person of Jesus and choose to follow him, that agape love will express itself in the very woof and warp of our daily living, our walk.
We crossover, we move from:
· death to life
· darkness to light
· sin to righteousness
· hate to love
“Loving one another” was strongly evident in the times of the early church. Not only did the church community love its own members it was also, radically, scandalously, a group of people who loved others too.
The last non-Christian ruler of the Roman Empire, Julian, full of frustration said, “It is a disgrace that these impious Galileans care not only for their own poor but for ours as well.”
The word that describes what this looks like is “fellowship”, or koinonia in the Greek original. John refers to this earlier in the letter and it depicts relationships based on joint ownership and partnership.
Not a gooey, feelings-type of thing but a very practical arrangement. It is a deep and rich concept which starts with:
· the relationship between God the Father and Jesus his son.
· then expressed to us in the sacrificial love of Jesus in dying for us.
· through this love we are invited into fellowship with God.
· then as we experience this awesome love it overflows in the way we live our lives.
There are people that stand in opposition to God and his people - their lifestyles and belief systems set against God’s love - living in sin and darkness;
But we are called to be a people who, having experienced God’s love, live it out in our day-by-day walk by loving one another.
Whereas Cain hated and murdered, Jesus loved and sacrificed. We are called to love and sacrifice too.
Where we see someone in need we are not to close our hearts but allow compassion to rise and seek to love one another genuinely.
What do we do?
- Sometimes that will take money and material sacrifice – when we give extra money or make a meal or lend our car.
- Sometimes that will mean giving up our time and space – when we lend a hand decorating someone’s house instead of watching TV or have someone round for a meal when we would rather chill out on our own.
- Sometimes it will mean forgiving people for the way they have hurt us or offended us. Choosing instead to see them as Jesus sees them, letting go of our bitterness and resentment and instead seeking the best for them.
Chapter 3 verse 11 – This is the message you have heard from the beginning, we should love one another.
How do we respond?
- Start by thinking on the incredible love God shows to us in the sacrificial death of Jesus.
- Become aware of where we naturally stand - in opposition to that wonderful grace.
- We say, I am sorry for my sin, forgive me and fill me with your Spirit.
- Receive that love. And then let his power and the power of his love fill you and transform you – setting you free from your guilt, releasing you to forgive others, raising in you a compassion that overflows in love for your brothers and sisters in this community, your neighbourhood and beyond.
David Flowers, 06/11/2011