First John 4:20-21 God is Love pt 2

All right, the title of today's lesson is First John 2021 God is Love Part Two. And Andrew did an outstanding job, as usual, last week in sharing the first part of this part one. So as we're getting used to doing, let's review in a summary fashion what Andrew took his time last week to address. The first thing is we have confidence in our day of judgment.

Isn't that great? I mean, we were with somebody very recently. In fact, we were with Bruce Beatty. in Cincinnati last weekend. We had dinner with he and an old friend of his and we were just getting to know her a little bit and she expressed the fact that her mother, despite being 98, had no certainty about what was going to be happening after she dies.

She's Roman Catholic by background and you know the whole story there in terms of purgatory and having judgment after the death in terms of where she goes. So we shared with her the fact that she can have full confidence in where she goes. And John tells us his point blank in 1 John 17 to 19. We have confidence in our day of judgment.

Isn't that wonderful to rest in that particular truth? Secondly, there's no fear in God's perfect love. Fear being reflecting reverence predominantly because his perfect love casts out any fear. So you can interpret fear however you want, but his perfect love does away with it.

But we continue to maintain an atmosphere of approaching Him with reverence, don't we? That's always part of our addressing our Heavenly Father. And the third is we love because He first loved us. This is an important principle. We don't love Him first, and by the way, He loved us back because we're doing good things, right? No, that's not the story. So anyway, we're going to return to how often John deals with love again. Andrew addressed this last week. So any thoughts again about last week's lesson? Andrew, you want to share anything more?

No, that's it. Can you hear me okay? Yeah, we can. Fine. Yeah. No, it's good. And I just, we talked about the judgment being more of the Tribulation Era judgment instead of the Bema Seat judgment, which disagreed with the constable and our famous commentators. So that was the only thing that was a hiccup, I guess, of last week. Well, we've taken a deep breath to get rid of the hiccup. So before we enter into today's lesson, we're going to begin with 1 John 4 verse 15. So why don't you open your Bibles if they're not open and we'll follow along together.

So verse 15, whosoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, God abides in him and he in God. And we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him. This is incredibly important in terms of what we're going to be looking at today. Verse 17, love has been perfected among us in this. that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There's no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because fear involves torment, that he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love him because he first loved us.

In today's verses, if someone says I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? In this commandment we have from him that he who loves God loves his brother also. All right, verse 20, let's read it again. If a man says, I love God and hates his brother, he's a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God who is not seen?

I'm going to challenge you with this next question. How many verbs do you count in this verse? I want to hear some numbers. This is a quiz, and if you're incorrect, you will fail. Carol, I'm sorry. I'm hearing eight. This is not an auction by the way. We have two eights. Nine from Mike. Anyone out there in video land? At least eight. Well, the correct answer is 10.

All right, so what I'm going to do is very academic, so bear with me while I go through this. How many tenses, voices, and moods? And by the way, is this important? I said I'm going to be academic for a second, so forgive me. All right. It seems like it very well could be.

If a man's say is aorist, active, subjunctive. I love God, present, I have the verb, by the way, in bold, okay? I love God, present, active, indicative. And hateth his brother, present, active, subjunctive, that means kind of keep on hating. This is not just once upon a time. And by the way, subjunctive, that's if, right? He is, is the verb, present, indicative, no voice, means factual and current.

For he that loveth not present active participle, this is really a verb that behaves like a participle, whom he hath seen as perfect active indicative, how can he be his present middle passive indicative? So middle passive means the individual has a role in this, but it's passive, it's what's being acted upon him. Love God, present active infinitive, continuously not loving God in context. Whom he hath seen, who hath is a verb, perfect active indicative, and not seen is perfect active indicative.

Now, back to the question. How important are these tenses and moods and ultimately, you know, everything it relates to. Let's go back to the last slide. Tenses, voices, and moods. How important? So what's subjunctive typically mean? It's first and second conditional, right? Maybe you will, maybe you won't. Maybe you will, maybe you won't. Okay.

So if a man say, I love God, he may say that, or he may not say that, right? I love God, present active indicative. He states a fact, right? That I love God. So he may or may not say that, but he means it to say that he has it. and hates his brother. Present active subjunctive. That means he goes on hating. So that's again, maybe he does, maybe he doesn't. He is a liar. Again, fact. Okay. If he says he does that, but doesn't love his brother, he's lying. Okay. For he that loveth not. Present active participle. So loveth not is something he's currently involved in. He's not loving. Okay. Whom he hath seen. What's his perfect active indicative? He's seen his brother, but he's not seen God. Perfect active indicative. Perfect tense means what?

But it has continuing presence in the future, right? And it's factual. All right. Present passive or middle indicative. How can he? So what I think that interprets is if he's involved in this, it's middle and it's factual, but it's also something that's being acted upon him partly.

So in other words, what the scripture is saying is, you know, how can he, you know, what love? Well, let's go back to the verse. How can he love God if he doesn't love his brother? So he's involved in that. But God is saying in a passive sense that it's not possible that he can love God if he doesn't love his brother. Love God, present active infinitive, that means continually loving God.

So the presence here is he's hating ongoing or he's loving ongoing. Now we're going to come back to how we're doing here. But whom he loved, perfect active indicative. So again, something has happened and ultimately is factual in terms of its imprint going forward. and not seen perfect act of indicative. Again, something that he has experienced that has ongoing consequences. Now, I said this would be academic, so we'll leave it at that. So, well, let's try to interpret the verse.

So, I thought it was kind of interesting to look at ten verbs in this one verse in scripture and how the various tenses and moods and, you know, reflect and voices reflect the interpretation. All right, throughout his gospel and epistles, the Apostle John spends a lot of time on love, agape or agape. And Andrew last week stated this occurs 26 times in this part of chapter 4, verses 7 through 21. 26 times in these 15 verses. Incredible. And in his gospel, by the way, and through Epictetus, I think we counted this before and I don't recall the exact number, but it's way up there. So love is an important attribute of John's walk through the spirit and how he brings this to our attention today. So what does it mean for us to love God? Well, we know from the other verses, he has to love us first. We have to have that clear in our minds before we start out. That's why we began at 15, right? Right. So that's the beginning point. Well, Smith says this, and you know, we can look at commentator after commentator.

The thought is that the amazing love of God in Christ is the inspiration for all the love that stirs in our hearts. Important fact. Remember, we don't love God so he loved us back. He loved us and our love is an extension of that love. It's realizing once we come to grips with the fact that God loves us and boy for some people that is a hard pill to swallow. They cannot get past that for a myriad of reasons. So once we come to faith and come to know that he loves us that fact is to make a difference in our lives.

About him. What keeps, you said the believer, but even the not. I meant the unbeliever. Well, it's both. It could be both. What keeps the believer and even more so the unbeliever from knowing that God loves them? Circumstance. Okay, so. Their sin. All right, that's good. Circumstances.

Gee, my mother died young. Gosh, how could God be I mean, my father died at 35, and I was 10 months of age, and my mother always had kind of a bitterness about who God was, because her husband was taken at such a young age. I mean, I saw that, and I reflect now better on it than when I was a child, of course, because now I'm saved. I can look back and see that manifest. I mean, she wasn't angered day to day, but I could just see how that influenced her life. So yeah, lots of reasons people come short of understanding that God loved them first. All right.

Then how do we love our brother? And I think that the next question that comes up first is first, who is our brother? Is this our true blood brother from the same parent? Or is this an ancestor that's perhaps a little bit more distant? Or is this a fellow believer here? Or could this be any individual, any fellow, or man? What are the thoughts here?

By the way, the commentators are all over the board on this one. Or don't address it at all. I went to Schaeffer. Schaeffer doesn't even deal with this section of Scripture. Yeah, I know. It's important. Sometimes they don't deal with the parts you want them to deal with. It drives you crazy. In context, who do you think our brother is? You know, I'm going to come to some verses in the Gospel account, but maybe you reflect this more broadly. But your thoughts, come on.

This is Sunday school, about, you know, sanctuary time. Well, Jesus dealt with that with the Pharisees. The Pharisees asked him the same question, who's my brother? And Jesus pointed out, you know, he told them about the Samaritan man who was assaulted on the way down from Jericho and all this. Levi went by, and the priest went by, and a Samaritan came by and helped this guy out. And so Jesus said, well, who's Who's your brother? Anybody that needs your help?

Okay, so you're interpreting this more broadly. It could be any human being. Is this correct? Okay. Other thoughts here? I would say it's a believer. Because I think, in my mind, John addresses that a lot with, you know, our brothers in Christ. Okay, who's this epistle written to? Right. It's written to the church, is it not? Right. And those are believers. So, we'll come back to whether If we accept the fact that this is probably addressing the brother and the Lord, not a more broad interpretation, then how do we deal with the unsaved individual that crosses her path day in and day out? We'll come back to that. Now, here's a very simple statement. In the flesh, isn't it easier to love someone we can see than someone we've never seen?

I mean, just think about that from a practical perspective. Sure. It depends on how we're acting. This sounds very circumstantial, Carolyn. Do you want to go into more detail? That's what I'm saying. Unfortunately, in the flesh, we are very circumstantial in terms of somebody cuts in front of us in the highway, right? Speak for yourself. I would never do that. I don't think we need to address that one.

So any other thoughts about this? I think it's obvious. In the human flesh, it's certainly easier to love someone we get to know and have seen than someone we haven't. We can hear about Jim's great uncle, but Jim, unless we meet him, we don't really have much of an idea of what you're telling us about. It's not like God. We haven't seen God. But our faith really indicates his presence. And scripture reconfirms this time and time again. So OK, good. John 119, no man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.

1 John 4.12, a few verses that precedes our text of today, no man has seen God at any time. He repeats himself from the gospel. If we love one another, God dwells in us and His love is perfected in us. We're going to return to that verse in a second.

Constable, a claim to love God is a poor substitute for genuine love of the brethren. To the class, what do you make of this statement? Well, you can't see God's love, but you can see your love for your brother. I mean, I think that's what he's... Thoughts on this. A claim to love God is a poor substitute for genuine love of the brethren.

That kind of points out the fact that we love with actions and feelings followed. You know, it's how we treat other people, our brothers in Christ, that shows our love for God. Okay. Yeah, as opposed to giving lip service, it's easy to say, you know, we love everybody. What are your actions? How does it show up in your life? Okay, are you putting each one of us under law, Margaret? No, I'm not.

Okay, so how does this happen then? How can the love for our brethren reflect our love of God, if we claim we love God? Okay, we're going there, okay? But this is really critically important, and I think there's some very, very important basic facts that we need to relate to. So first, how are we doing here? Are we all liars? Let's look for scripture to support that.

First John 1.6, if we say that we have fellowship with him and we walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. I love this bouncer.

First John 2.4, he that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. 1 John 2, 9, he that says he is in the light and abides and hates his brother in darkness even until now. And 1 John 5, 6, 5, 10, a verse that we'll come to in a few weeks I presume. He that believes on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believes not God hath made him a liar because he believes not the record that God gave hath his son.

How are we doing here? I mean, it looks like in the human flesh, we're liars. Sure. So this love that we're supposed to have for our brethren has to be sourced out from a different, you know, entity. But our love, I bolded this, our love for our brothers is not dependent on our flesh. Amen. It can't be. I mean, we're not capable of that kind of love.

You know, if you're an unbeliever and you think you please God by being under the law, ultimately, how are you doing there? I mean, it's incredible. There are a lot of self-righteous people out there trying to please God by loving their brother in the flesh. Now, that doesn't mean they can't show affection for their brother or have emotional connections to their brother or sister, but this is not what Christianity is called to.

It's called to a life. And let's support this scripturally. Philippians 1.21, one of my favorites, for me to live is Christ. It's not for my flesh to get buffed up to do better. For me to live is a person. And Christianity is named Christianity because of one thing, the Lord Jesus Christ, or one person.

1 John 4.12, I said we'd return to this. Now we're going to emphasize a different part of the verse.

No man has ever seen God. And if we love one another, God dwells in us and his love is perfected in us. What do you make of that? So it's not our love, it's his love. And when we think of perfection, we think of, you know, in the human sense, we're thinking of something being perfect. But what's the best interpretation of the Greek? Brought to completion. So his love is completed in us. In fact, even though we've not seen God. So it's not our love for someone in these fleshly kind of feelings we have. And that's important in terms of our human existence. But that's not the love of God John's talking about.

First John 4.17, the verse that Andrew covered last week, love has been perfected among us in this, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, If so, are we in this world? So notice in this world, the judgment was spared, but now in this world, his love is being perfected amongst us. I mean, you know, what does that do? It takes the pressure off, doesn't it?

And I'm going to deal with something even a little bit more controversial now. Does this loving our brother equate to liking them? No, not always. Well, I think I'm getting some agreement here. And I had to... You'll like this. No, because love is an obligation. It's an obligation not because of its legal nature. It's an obligation to our new birth in Christ Jesus and our new life. It's not a choice.

And to like Macaulay calls it neutral. And in his section on this that I listened to yesterday, it's like, do I like vanilla or chocolate ice cream? Right. We don't see God talk about liking people. He never talks about that. He loves them. He gave his son. He never talks about liking them. He just loves them. And he demonstrates that.

So it's... Yeah, we all have, I think, if we think of our life experiences, we have people that we want to be with and people we just don't want to be with that much. I mean, so there's nothing wrong about that. It's kind of like I often say, should I buy a white Ford or a black Chevrolet? I mean, it's You know, not that God can't interpret the circumstances, but... Anyway, does somebody have a comment? I hear some ruffling out there in the field. It was my wife, I apologize, I hit my mic on... Bob, I think you hit the nail right on the head that this is God's love, isn't it? It's a whole different kind of love, isn't it, Roy?

Yeah, we're in Him. And you know, our new nature is perfect because it's created by Him. And that new nature, its source is God Himself. That's the love. And do we measure our performance here, Roy? I think that that's looking at ourselves rather than Christ. As a body of believers here, we know everybody pretty well and that's what's so beautiful about having a church of this size because the body is connected and everybody the Lord gives a perfect role to. It's just different.

We're not all the same but yet the love of God is reflected in our interactions, not because we're performing, it's because we are ultimately obliging to the new nature we have within. That's kind of beautiful because it takes the pressure off. You know, I see people walking in the street, I kind of look at them and their appearance may not be very particularly liking, but yet I kind of look at them, I try through the spirit to look at them in God's eyes. You know, God loves them as much as He loved this sinner here who He saved by grace. And therefore, when you look at somebody with God's love in mind and through the new nature, you really accept them for who they are and just like us. You know, Paul said near the end of his life that he's the greatest among all sinners. Paul? I know. So Paul's not measuring this by human performance. Right.

He's seeing himself crucified and dead and buried in the death and risen with him in the nearness of life. Well, it's obvious that believers can hate their brothers. You know, and anybody who denies that is not looking at the truth. Think about this, Jim, in Christianity, the different theologies people bring to the table, and I think one of the things that we have comfort here is the new life exchange life because of the identification curse.

Yes. But we were with believers the other night, gathering in somebody's home, and there's a legal atmosphere about some of them in terms of, and we're not here to judge them, but we're here to encourage them that in fact There's a rest and a peace in our salvation. Okay. I wish our dogs could reflect this more clearly next time. So, Roy, ask your dog about this, would you please?

Alright, last verse of chapter 4, verse 21. Here's one that's always kind of fun to deal with, too. In this commandment, commandment, every from him that he who loves God loves his brother also. So if you say you love God, then it's kind of expected that we would love our brother, but that's not in the power of the flesh.

Okay. How should we interpret commandment? I thought we're no longer under law here. Oh, yeah, Mike, yeah, I'm sorry. Okay, other thoughts? You're right on, I think, Mike. I mean, if you look at this in terms of the best interpretation from White Vines and And, you know, it says a commandment is a prescribed rule in accordance with which a thing is done. So it's a principle, isn't it? It's a prescribed rule in accordance with which a thing is done. Kind of an awkward phrase.

The Ten Commandments, which said, as you love yourself, but as I have loved you, Man, what a difference, huh? That's the goal of the love that we've been talking about here. That's what it's been perfected. As He has loved us, we will love one another. Right, and you're right on in terms of anticipating the first verse I'm going to share here. Matthew 22, 39, and the second commandment is like unto us, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

So, Back to Jim's comment earlier. So is our neighbor Christ in context in the gospel account of Matthew to the Jew? I mean, he's talking to the Jew now. Is his neighbor the Jew, the believing Jew, or is this in fact perhaps anybody out there? I still think it's anybody out there.

OK. But you think in John, though, are you comfortable with the fact he's talking to the brethren? Absolutely. OK. Yes. First John, yes. All right. Good. John 13, 34, a new commandment I give unto you, Roy, it's kind of the new commandment is that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

So this is a new commandment, but it's in the epistle of John, so this is not law. It's, if you will, a rule or a principle of God's dwelling in us as new creations in Christ Jesus. Well, as Roy points out, the critical point here is, as I have loved you. Because it shows it's God's love, not our love.

So that's a critical point. And there's one other thing too, Roger and Bob. The one another is of the same kind. Okay, that's a good point, Roy. That's good. Thank you for sharing that. And that's where you get, where with John, you kind of get, you know, he makes it between brethren, one another the same kind, so that would be brothers.

Okay, back to the issue, is this something we, you know, take credit for? No. The life of Christ in us exists as it is, and we don't pay attention or take credit for who we are or the way we behave. It's His, and of course, you know, if we fall into flesh and sin, that's a whole different ballgame, but the life of Christ lives out in each one of us, and often in a different manner, and manifests in a different manner. But that love is a principle of God we must all inhabit, because He first loved us.

And that sets the bar so far above what we can attain. You're right, Jim. You know, we can't do that in the flesh. Well, I think that's what takes the pressure off. I mean, there's a rest for people of God. That's the rest we should all share, and that kind of begins the life being transformed by the power of the Spirit and the new nature.

Great point. Would you consider love a principle? I would call it a life. I mean, principles of God are true from Genesis to Revelation, so principles carry on throughout Scripture, but I think that the Church, the love of God, is the life we have in Christ Jesus. That's maybe an oversimplification. Well, also many places in the scripture love is an attribute of God. It's something that defines its character. And hence it defines... But as Margaret pointed out, it's what others see.

I mean, again, I say this so often, but Hal said, you may be the only Bible people ever read. I mean, that's to the church too, but also to the unbeliever. It's unfortunate the church, I think, have no data, but most of us don't spend as much time in the word as he calls us to, but I'll just throw that out there. But anyway, but even to a believer, it might be a witness to a Bible that they haven't really read.

All right, another verse, Galatians 5.14, for all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. And that's Paul, not John. And as I commented on, reflected on several times, this is not law, but the new life we all have in Christ Jesus.

Margaret's favorite verse, Galatians 2.21, I do not frustrate the grace of God, for righteousness come by the law, then Christ died in vain.

I mean we all remember Galatians 2.20, I'm crucified with Christ nevertheless I live. I mean that's an incredible verse, but I love this one because if the righteousness comes by the law, meaning putting a legal, you know, set of metrics that we need to perform to ultimately show God's love for one another, then his death is worthless. So the sacrifices in the Old Testament were good. That's what God called them to. Jesus didn't need to die because the sacrifices took care of all that. The blood of bulls and goats can never take away sin. That's the problem. It's the sin problem. Oh, is it that? All right, I just went to this, I'd like to pull something from the web.

Dear friends, let us love one another for love comes from God. Everyone who loves in God's manner has been born of God. And interestingly enough, 1 John 4, and knows God. I mean, it's interesting that love for one another is knowing God. How do we know God? By believing on him. Well, right. How do we believe on him? We have to be in the Word. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Aren't we privileged today to have a written text that we can turn to, to know the Lord Jesus Christ?

Okay, I'm done for today. Are there any comments or questions, closing thoughts? We missed that comment because the screen froze up. Okay, there are several comments here. Well, right after you said, are there any comments, then you went... All right, Wayne, make your comment again, please.

I'm just saying, God is the source of love, and He is love, so He's the only source. He's also the source of life. And then I mentioned after that, what about couples who are happily married, who are not saved, who have love for one another? Is it agape love?

It can't be. Roger said it can't be. Right. But you know, thinking about a Christian marriage now in terms of agape, how often do we fall short of that? It can sometimes be conditional, can't it? Even though down deep we know it's not. Still have that old man hanging around. He shows up too often a little bit, right?

How do we like love homeless people? Before I walk through the homeless camp, it's right by the trail. I don't feel comfortable walking there anymore. Well, it's God's love, Marilyn. It's nothing you can... I know. That's not something we intellectualize. I think it's something that's spirit-led down deep. It's really... You wouldn't want to run up there and hug them. No, but you're not called to do that necessarily, right? It's not that kind of love.

And remember, in context, I think the best interpretation of brother is our brethren. The homeless, you know, I think we still can be called to share and minister, but that love of God really does extend to the unbeliever that we can express and have opportunities to do so. And she could pray for them, as she's walking by. We probably do already, but I'm just saying. I pray not to walk by. That was a meeting. We understand, yeah. We should have a baby, very soon. It comes from white. We don't like them. Yeah, I mean, this would not be someone we're drawn to, personally. I might not love the world, but I'll send you some to die for. In our fallen society, I'm afraid that the homeless are kind of pawns in the equation here.

It seems like they're being, you know, to produce some, you know, feeling. I get, you know, it's, we, you know, actually when, in the Lord said, we'll always have the, what's the verse? I can't quote it verbatim. Thank you. So we have to remember. So we're recognized, we're always going to have those people, and we should have compassion for it. We also should realize that the fallen world will use people like that to their advantage, for whatever they want to accomplish. And we're kind of in the midst of all that, so I don't have a solution for that. observation, I guess. Are you opening the door to politics? I'm trying to stay out of politics. We're going to close that one real fast. All right. No other thoughts. Roy, could you close us in prayer, please? You bet.

Thank you, Heavenly Father, for this privilege. When we open your Word and your Spirit tells us about you, you are so marvelous. Thank you for doing this. And we can trust you, we know, because you say, things that are absolutely true. Thank you for that. Thank you for loving us so much that on the cross you could say it's finished. Amen. We thank you Lord for all of this. In Christ's name, Amen.