Well, growing up, I took great delight and even boasted in the fact that I had an Italian last name. I like to let others think that maybe I had some ties, some connections to the mafia. It seemed to have its benefits in some ways. But all the while that I boasted in having an Italian last name, I knew that it was an empty boast. It was, in fact, a lie. You see, my father was adopted into an Italian family. And at the age of 30, he hired an agency to pursue locating his birth mother. And when he found his birth mother, it turns out her last name was Slovakian. So I didn't really bring that up in conversation. When he asked her why was it that he was put up for adoption, the story that he was told was that the father abandoned the family, left her essentially financially unable to care for all of her children. So therefore, he being the youngest of her children, she had no choice and she had to make the adoption plan. And that was the story he was told. That was the story that we knew. But about nine years ago, he was visiting his birth family again and noticing that he had some different characteristics than his other siblings. It led him, it prompted him to ask, why do I not look exactly like they do? And that's when his birth mother dropped the bomb, so to speak, that he had a different birth father. Hence, the estranged husband, and hence, the adoption plan. You see, despite the story that he was originally told, the marks of a different father told a different story. And as an interesting side note, as he went on to press the matter, to find out about who this man was, she admitted that he actually had an Italian last name. So, all the while, I was Italian and I didn't even know it. But as it was for my dad, so it is with any child. A child will necessarily bear his father's resemblance. And in 1 John, in this epistle, it is full of those distinguishing characteristics, those traits, those features that a child will inevitably demonstrate and display when that child's father is the Father God. And this was very important for John to do, to give those distinguishing traits, to give those distinguishing features, because at this time, the people to whom he was writing, they were undergoing their own form of persecution. There were false teachers, false prophets, antichrists attacking the church, even rising up from within the midst of the church. And therefore John is giving these distinguishing characteristics to protect the people of God that they might be able to distinguish the true prophet, the true teacher, the true child of God from the false. John gives various distinguishing characteristics. There are doctrinal characteristics that will inevitably be displayed by the true Teacher, the true Child of God. Doctrinal characteristics such as the belief and the teaching of the full divinity and the full humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ as we find that in 1 John 1, 1-3 and in chapter 4, 2-3. In addition to the doctrinal characteristics, there are also other characteristics, moral characteristics. What characteristics do you think might be made manifest in a child of God? Well, John speaks of righteousness, the practice of righteousness being a characteristic of a child of God. But John spends much time in this letter on the distinguishing characteristic of love. In our passage, as we consider this evening, the Lord, through John, is teaching us that the children of God resemble their Father when they obey His command to love one another. The children of God resemble their Father when they obey His command to love one another. We will consider this passage in three main points. First, the distinctive of love commanded. Second, the description of love conveyed. And finally, the demonstration of love compelled. So first, the distinction of love commanded. Between 1 John 3-1 through 5-6, John gives 46 references to love. Which is the greatest command? Jesus. It was asked of him. And what did Jesus say? You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself. In John chapter 13, 34 through 35, Jesus declares a new commandment I give you. that you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." And this is exactly what we find essentially reiterated here. In verses 7 and 8, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God. And everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. Here the apostle is commanding believers to mutual love one for another. And notice the way in which he does this. He begins by saying, Beloved. He uses an endearing term, a term that harkens back to what he had just told them in chapter 3, there in verse 1. He says, Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God. He's reminding them, you are the beloved children of God Almighty, God who reigns over all things. You are His beloved children. And therefore, you are family. You are an eternal family. From this point forward, there is nothing that is going to change that relationship. You are bound to one another as the children of God. It doesn't matter the miles that might separate. It doesn't matter whatever else might come into play. You are bound to one another. And so, therefore, it should be only natural as the children of God that we love one another. And notice that though John is a prominent apostle, one who was even called the beloved disciple, one who might have been favored, so to speak, perhaps even seen that way by others, John does not see himself as above this command of loving one another. He doesn't see himself as, hey, I'm the favored disciple. You all get busy loving one another. I'm exempt in some ways. I've got a special privileged status. No, he says, let us, let us all love each one. And so you see, regardless of your status in the church, regardless of whatever distinction you might come up with, whether it be racial distinction, whether it be a gender distinction, whether it be a social class distinction, financial status, achievement in the civil sphere, whatever distinction there might be, all of God's children are commanded to love all of God's children without distinction. He says, let us all love each one. In verse 7, He commands us to this love. And in the second half of verse 7 through verse 8, He demonstrates that the carrying out of this command is neither baseless, is neither groundless, nor is it an unattainable command. He says, Let us love one another. Why? For love is of God. Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. That's the reason why this command is given. Because of who God is. Because of the believer's relationship to Him. The grounds for our love and the enabling, the ability to carry out this command is rooted in God. Because why? God is love. God is love. Love is not to Him like clothes are to a person. They're not separate from His being or separate from His essence. All of God's attributes are Him. There is no distinction. There's no division, I should say. And so it's not as though God could pick up a log at one moment and set it down. Express it at one time and not at another. No, love issues forth from his very essence, from his very being. It says, love is of God. It has its source, its fountainhead in God himself. Just as light radiates from the sun, or heat radiates from light, so love radiates from the very essence of the triune God. It is no wonder, then, that the law of God, which is the description of his moral character, the moral law of God, is summarized by loving God and loving one another. From all eternity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have been loving one another, unbroken fellowship of love with one another. And in time, God chose to manifest His love, to display His love by creating a people and setting His love upon His people who were to respond as image bearers to display that attribute of God, to display the love that God has among the triune God, had to display that love as His image. So man was created. Man was created to know God and to love Him and enjoy eternal blessedness with Him. But by the fall, But by the fall, man became cut off in his sin, cut off from that eternal fount head of love. And we see the practical results of this. He's no longer loving God. He's running and fleeing from him, hiding from God in the garden. Not only does it cut off his love towards God, it cuts off his love towards his fellow man. You see, immediately, Adam blaming Eve, a division between humanity. No longer is that fellowship a good and perfect union. Therefore, so long as man remains in so long as man remains in rebellion, so long as man remains in that way, he cannot possibly love others, not as scripture describes, for God is the source of love. And therefore, the only possible conclusion is that for those who actually do love, for those who do demonstrate love, It must be that they have been born of God, that they are new creatures, that the Holy Spirit has come within them and has made them a new creature in Christ. And therefore, inevitably, they will manifest the love of God as they are being restored into the image of God after the Lord Jesus Christ. The first fruits of the Spirit As Scripture teaches us in Galatians 5.22, of those fruits of the Spirit, the first one mentioned is love. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness. These things have their source in God Himself. It is only by being a new creature in Christ can one be able to exercise the love of God for others. You must be born again if you are to demonstrate, if you are to exercise this love. And as a new child of God, born of God, born by the regenerating work of God in your heart, according to that new nature, you will inevitably love others. And so you see, manifesting the love of God, manifesting that attribute of God is not a side item on the menu that a Christian can pick up, take, and choose if he wants to. And say, well, you know, loving other individuals, that's that Christian's gift. I don't have that gift. No, you do have that gift. If you are born of God, if you have the Holy Spirit within you, you will inevitably demonstrate this to be the case. And so we see that while the Christian is not to make a distinction in whom he loves among the people of God, the demonstration of that love will make a distinction regarding who he is. As Jesus said in John 13 at 35, By this all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. Loving others as new creatures in Christ will make a distinction. between you and the world. And thus, if one does not love God, if one does not love his neighbor, he has not been born of God. He is not a new creature. He doesn't know who God is. He doesn't know Him in that intimate fellowship. He might know Him outwardly. He might know there's a God that exists, but he doesn't know God through that fellowship By the Spirit, through faith, he doesn't know Him in that intimate way. And therefore he remains dead under the wrath of God until God does a regenerating work within him. And so we see that loving others is a dividing line. How is it that you would be characterized then? How is your life characterized? When others look at you, others whether they be those in the church or outside of the church, when they look at you, what do they conclude regarding you? Would they say, well now there goes an individual who can quote many scripture references. Do they say, well, now there goes an individual who can give a good defense of the things that he believes. Well, there's an individual who faithfully attends churches. Or do they say, well, there's an individual who loves. There's an individual who loves others. I know it. I've seen it. There's an individual who loves his wife. It's evident. There's an individual who loves his children. Or there's a child who loves his parents. There's one who loves his neighbors. One who loves church members. When they look at you, do they see, well, there's one who loves difficult church members. There's one who loves Christians from other denominations. There's one who loves visitors to the church. I've seen it. It's been evident. Do they say, well, there's one who loves the spiritually mature? There's one who loves the backslider. There's one, I can tell, they love those noisy neighbor children. Even the noisy neighbor children's parents, I can tell, they love them. When they look at you, do they conclude, now there's one who loves unbelievers. One who loves even his own enemies. I've seen it with my own eyes. They conclude this. Do they simply conclude, in other words, there's one whose father must be the Father God. Is this how they understand you? Is it evident to them? You see, the Lord is the fountain of love of any love that there is. He is the source of it. And we as his children are to be those channels through which that love flows. In Titus 1.12, the Cretans had a reputation for being liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons. How are you characterized as a Christian? If you are in Christ, it should be love. And so, John commands believers to mutual love. And you can carry out this command by the grace of God. And in so doing, it will make a distinction. as to who you are, that you have an identity in God. And so this brings us then to our second point, the description of love conveyed. You see, at this point, someone could turn around and say, okay, I'm supposed to love others as a Christian, got it, check, moving on. But you see, God would not have us simply move on thinking that love is just some nebulous, vague concept Perhaps something that's just open to our interpretation. We can define it however so will we wish. Or just to think, well, love is simply just me entertaining thoughts that I'm a loving person. No, God is the source of love. There's no other love outside of him, outside of his being. And therefore, as the source, he defines, he describes what that love is that we are to emulate, what we are to imitate as his image bearers. And he does this as we move forward in verse 9. He says, In this is the love of God, in this the love of God was made manifest toward us, that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him. In that is love. That is the love that is put before our eyes to consider. See, God's love is not simply him entertaining some warm fuzzy thoughts or having some nice emotions towards us. God did not demonstrate his love for us by simply sending us a greeting card every once in a while in the mail. God's love, how is it? What is it? God's love is something that is real, something that is substantial, something that does something, accomplishes something. What does God look like? How do you know God loves you? God's love is demonstrated in a way that the Apostle John saw it. He saw it with his own two eyes. The love of God looks like a father sending his son into the world to redeem a people that they might know him and live eternally with him. The love of God is what we find in Genesis 22, portrayed here when God speaks to Abraham and He says to him, take now your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering. Brothers and sisters, I love you. And if it came down to it, I would give my life for you. At least I'd like to think that I would. But I guarantee you, I guarantee you, I would never give the life of any of my children for your life. Wouldn't do it. And would you, if you had one child, if you had one child, would you give that child's life to sustain the life of a good man. Christ says hardly would one give life for a good man. If you had that one child, well, let's up it a little bit. Let's say if you had one child and there was a criminal, would you give the life of that child to spare the life of a criminal? Well, let's up it just a little bit more. Let's say that criminal committed the crime against you. or one of your family members. Would you give the life of your child to spare that criminal's life? He's on death row for murdering a family member. Would you give your child to spare him? Brothers and sisters, this analogy pales in comparison to the love of God who sent his only begotten son, into a massive horde of humanity to redeem a people that, when they saw Him, they spat upon Him. They raised their hands against Him. They shouted, crucify Him. They beat Him. To them, motivated by love for such sinners and rebels, God sent His Son into the world for them, for you, for me, to free us from the just wrath of God that was rightly to be poured out upon us. For our sin is against God. He is the one who is offended. As David declares, despite having committed adultery, despite having committed murder and being guilty for it, actions that resulted in the death of a child that was born as a result of adultery, despite all these things He said against you, Lord, against you and you only, have I sinned and done this wickedness in your sight. All the sin is against God. It has offended Him. And yet, what love, what manner of love, behold, what manner of love that He should bestow His name, His love, His affection upon us, and that we should be called His children. This is the amazing love of the Lord. Christ died for the ungodly, as the scripture says, scarcely for a righteous man, Will one die? Yet perhaps for a good man, someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. You see in verse nine here, the Lord is describing that love that we are to portray. No, we are not to go around sacrificing our children for the sins of others. That's obviously not the point. But what is the point? The love of God is that which was costly, that which was tangible, that which did something that was for the good of others. This is the love that we see in God sending His Son. In John 15, 12 through 14, Jesus says, this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you in the same way as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are my friends if you do whatever I command you to love as Christ has loved. How? Have you laid down your life for others as Christ has? How have you laid down your life? What has your love for others cost you? Do you simply entertain the thought that you love the downtrodden? Do you love those who are suffering? Do you love those who have just experienced loss? Do you love the orphan? Do you love the widow? But as James says, then you just say, well, goodbye. Be in peace. May the Lord bless you. How does your love cost you? Do you do something? Does your love do something for others? Is it tangible? Is it real? How has your love cost you? Has it cost you, perhaps, students, has your love for others cost you maybe some study time? Maybe you have to sacrifice getting a better grade because someone else is in need. And out of love for them, that dictates that you must lay aside the books. I'm guilty of that. Has it cost you perhaps some sleep when you're weary that someone needs you at that moment to pray for them, to talk with them? Has your love cost you perhaps even some money that you might have to provide for someone who is in great need? Perhaps when your wife is weary and she's been dealing with the children day in and day out, has it cost you maybe some downtime when you'd rather sit? Maybe some diapers could be changed or the dishes could be done. How has your love cost you when your wife needs you to listen to her, lay down what you're doing, and sacrifice that? Has the time needed to spend with your children, has that cost you, perhaps, some down time? You see, this is not the love that the world gives. This is not the way the world defines love. The world says you need to love yourself first. You need to consider yourself first. Scripture says no. That is not the love of God as we see it in the Lord Jesus Christ. The love of God looks like a parent being patient with his child, or a friend being patient with his friend as Christ was patient with his disciples, who despite years and years of ministering and leading them, they still didn't get it. He was patient with them. The love of God looks like a child honoring his father or his mother. as Christ honored His Father. The love of God looks like a student not being envious at the advancement of a classmate, but is in fact rejoicing over it. The love of God is not like one who boasts of himself, but is lowly and meek as the Lord Jesus Christ. The love of God is that which keeps calm when it would be provoked. as Christ did not revile and return when He was reviled. The love of God is that which does not celebrate when evil befalls someone else. It is that which rejoices in that which is true and right and good. The love of God is that which does not judge others quickly or harshly, but judges them charitably and kindly. In other words, just consider 1 Corinthians 13. You see, the love that God is calling us to is not that we just all sit around and hug and cry and sing kumbaya and just have an emotional weeping session. That's not the love that Christ is calling us to. This is a costly love. It's a self-sacrificing love. And this love of God is further amplified as we go on as we consider verse 10 He continues to describe it, in this is love. Not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins. The love of God, you see, it's not mercenary. It is not something that can be purchased. The love of God is not that which is given because He isn't making some sort of investment and He's waiting, He's expecting some major return on His investment. He thinks you're going to bring Him some big dividends. The love of God was not given for that reason. It's not something that can be paid back. It's not given in response to a payback. You see, Matthew 5, Jesus, you have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I say to you, love your enemies. And he goes on, he says, if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do so? So you love those simply because they're going to bless you someday. Well, whoop-de-ding-dong, who cares? That's not that wonderful. Tax collectors, the heathen, the ungodly do that. What kind of love is that when you're just expecting return from it? He says, but I say to you, love your enemies. Friends, you and I were the enemies of God. And He set His love upon us in Christ. When God looked down the corridors of time, He did not see those who would love Him and therefore in response to that set His love upon them. When He looked down the corridors of time, He saw children of wrath. He saw those who were by nature children of wrath. Those who were dead in trespasses and sins. That's what He saw. Ephesians 2, 4-5 says, Children of wrath, but God who is rich in mercy, you see, not because you were anything great, not because you did anything for Him, but because He is rich in mercy and He is willing to pour forth His mercy upon you who doesn't deserve it. But God who is rich in mercy because of His great love, which He loved us even when we were dead, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. It's expressed so succinctly in Deuteronomy 7, verses 7 through 8. The Lord did not set his love on you, nor choose you because you were more in number than the other people, for you were the least of all people. So why did God love him? But because the Lord loves you. Why does He love you? Because He loves you. That's the answer. It is a free bestowing of love and goodness and kindness, not for anything that we have done, simply because He has freely chosen to love sinners. And so, the love that we are to express as its source in God. You see, even if you think about it, the love that we express to God in return Even that love did not originate with us. It doesn't emanate from us. The love that we return to God, the love that we give to others, is that which He has first given to us. And so when we love God in return, it's not as though we're adding anything to Him. It's not as though God has been sitting up in heaven, just waiting to be loved, as though He's some needy individual. He needs our love, and so that's why He loved us. No, it doesn't add anything to His being. that we return love to him. It's a free bestowal of love upon us. And even when we do love him in response, it's imperfectly given at that. So no, God did not love us because he was going to get something out of the deal. And again, the love of God is even magnified further when it speaks of the son of God being sent forth as a propitiation for our sins now some of you I'm sure many of you I imagine know what this word propitiation means but it's a big fancy word that has this at its essence the Lord is holy, the Lord God is just, and He cannot deny His justice. He is holy, and He is wrathful against sin. Scripture declares that He is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and that sin must be punished according to His justice. He cannot deny Himself. And because of our sin, God is the offended party. We are the offending party. But because God is also merciful, And not only just, he sent forth his son to be the propitiation, to absorb the wrath of God, to turn it away, to assuage the wrath of God, to satisfy the wrath of God that was coming towards us. He stood in the gap and he received it on our behalf. so that we could rightly receive the love of God and it wouldn't be a violation of God's justice at the same time. It wouldn't be a violation of His mercy either. That God could be just when He loves us is because Christ freely offered Himself as the One to receive the wrath of God that was due our sin. That the offended party should make satisfaction for the offenders. This is the great love that God has displayed for us. And this is the love that you and I are to give towards one another, a love that is selfless, a love that is given freely, that is not eyeing anything in return. Freely you receive, freely you are to give. And having described what that love of God is to look like among us, Now, as we move to our final point, John then compels us, the demonstration of love, now compelled. Verse 11, Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. You see, God's love for us is not simply something to be a spectacle, for us to simply sit around and marvel at, as marvelous as it is. But since God has set his eternal love on us, since he has sent his son to propitiate the wrath of God that was due to us, it is only fitting, it is the only proper response that we should love God and love one another. You are to love all, and by God's grace, you can indeed love all. You might think, well, no, there's that one person. No matter how hard I've tried, no matter how much I've given, no matter how much time and energy I've spent on that person, they simply won't respond the way I want them to respond. So I've had it. I'm done with them. That's enough. I'm over it. To think, as a Christian, that you cannot continue to demonstrate love to such an individual is to deny the reality of who God is. It's just like a billionaire walking into a Dollar Tree and thinking he can't afford anything in the store. He's denying the reality of the wealth he possesses. You, being bound to God, you have him as your eternal storehouse, as an eternal source that cannot be exhausted, that you can continue to draw grace and strength from to love even the unlovely as God has loved you. And so you can pursue this command by His grace. You can pursue this command. Satan would love nothing more, speaking of love, Satan would love nothing more than to make you forget that your Father is God Himself. He would love for you to forget that you can draw strength from Him, that you can find grace from Him to carry out the commands that He has laid out for you, especially the command of loving. Nothing would more blur the lines of distinction between His people and the world than if we are busy not loving one another. Satan wants us to forget that. We must be reminded daily that God is our God, He is our source, He is our strength, and we can run to Him and He will never be exhausted. So we can draw on him. No, indeed, our love will not be perfect, not in this life, but nevertheless we can love one another. And John goes on then to compel us even further in loving one another in verse 12. He says, no one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. He lays before us these goals here of displaying the invisible God. And He lays before us the goal of perfecting the love of God. No one has seen God at any time. In His essence, No one has seen him at any time, says the scriptures. But as we love one another, since love is that which comes only from God, he's the only source of it, as we love one another, we are putting God on display before the world. Would you not desire that your life manifest evidence of God? Would you not want your good works, your loving works, to shine forth before the world that they might see They might recognize, they might see that that is different. And what? Thereby glorify the Father who is in heaven. And so this is great encouragement that our lives, that our love for one another might be a window for the outside watching world to look through and to see the invisible God in that way. Not only that, but this should encourage us. He says here that if we love one another, God abides in us. Again, this is evidence that God is within you. If you are demonstrating love towards one another, if you are carrying out this commandment, you can grow in your walk and making your calling and election sure that God abides with me. I could not possibly love one another. I could not possibly love others unless God's fellowship was with me. And therefore, I can be strengthened and grow in my assurance as I see, as I press forward in using God's grace to love others in the church. And so then, dear Christians, stir up, stir up that grace of love for others. Practice it, pursue it. See those opportunities that you have around you. You have the church. full of people who are needing in various ways. See how you can stir yourself up for loving one another. And then he gives us the goal of perfecting the love of God, a way to compel us to carry out this command. He says in verse 12 again, If you have love for one another, His love has been perfected in us. Now this doesn't mean that God's love is imperfect. It's lacking and somehow we need to add the missing piece. This has the idea of completing. Completing the purpose of God's love. why He loves us. God's love reached out towards us. God's love is that which sent forth His Son to be a propitiation for us. Having propitiated the wrath of God for us, God's regenerating work comes upon us and changes us and makes us new creatures in Christ. But the love of God, though it has that effect, it's not to stop there. It's not to have a dead-end street in us. It is to result then in our love for others. our love to God. And in that way we are completing, we are bringing to that final goal of the love of God. Why He is setting it upon us. So that we can carry out that great command. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength, and your neighbor as yourself. You shall love. And as imperfect as we do it in this life, we will do it perfectly by His grace in the end, in the final day. And so we demonstrate that love for one another and reversing the effects, God by His grace working in us, reversing the effects of the fall that fractured man's relationship with God, fractured man's relationship with man, and now we're being restored. So therefore, that desire to complete the love of God, let us then love one another. You see it is too bad in some ways. It is too bad that my father never got to meet his birth father. He's never seen him. He's never seen, doesn't even have a picture of him. All he has is a name, an Italian name to be sure. But every day that my dad gets up and gets ready for work and he looks in the mirror, he has a good idea of what that man looked like. And brothers and sisters, beloved children of God, your father commands you love one another as he has first loved you. And when you and I do this, we will indeed resemble our Father who is in heaven. And so, beloved, let us love one another.