God is Love: 1 John 4:19

Pastor Iromar Schreiber was our guest pastor on June 26th.  Here is the sermon he preached on the theme, “God is Love.”

Ever since our Fall into sin, we have been trying to find the love we have lost in our first paradise.  Every day, we see this yearning in TV, magazines, and the internet as they all speak of, and about, love in all of its distorted understandings.  Businesses have made millions using love to sell their products.

But do you know what love means?  Who is love?  And how do you define it?

The apostle Paul says that love is “the most excellent way” (1 Corinthians 12:31).  Even more, Paul says: “Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude.  It is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.  Love never ends” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8).

In our epistle reading, the Apostle John defines love using three words: “God is love”.  In the Gospel of John, he describes God’s love in this way: “For this is how God loved the world: he gave his one-and-only Son, so that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

The Apostle John was the disciple whom Jesus loved.  Many times, the beloved disciple reclined his head on the “Love’s shoulders”–the shoulders of Jesus.  Like John, Jesus also loves you and me.  Jesus died on the cross for us.  Now that’s real love!  Now, we have forgiveness and new life in Christ.  We have a true friend in Jesus, who offers day after day his shoulders to us.  It’s good to know somebody loves us in words and actions.  Jesus did and does.

In his letter, John says that God is love, that His love is perfect, and there is no fear in love.  In others words, without love, we are alone.  Loneliness hurts us.  Loneliness bring fears, sadness, and hopeless.  Without love there is no life; and life is all about love.

But God’s Word through John brings us life-changing news: “God is love.  We love because He first loved us.”  It means love all starts with God.  We are not alone, ever.  We have the love of God in Christ Jesus.  God showed his love by sending Jesus to earth to die for us.  God showed his love by creating us.  God showed his love by everything you have in life.  God showed his love by our family and friends.  These are some of the ways God shows His love to us.

Sometimes, we think or say, “Nobody loves me.”  We say that especially when we are facing difficulties or problems.  Yet, even during those times, we are not alone; we are not unloved.  God loves us with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3).

St. Augustine wrote, “The measure of love is love without measure”.  What he wrote is true.  God, indeed, loves us without measure.  We see this love being lived out in His promises made known to us even in the Old Testament.

God told Abraham, “Look up at the heavens and count the stars.  So shall your descendants be.”  God promised a son to Abraham and He gave a son to Abraham.  God also promised a Son to die in our place to save us.  He sent us Jesus Christ to be our Savior.  No doubt, God is love.  No debt, God paid all.  We are the subject of His love.  God loves us without measure through Jesus Christ.

Yet, we don’t want to just talk about love, read about love, or discuss love.  We want love to be real.  We need to experience the love of God.  And we experience God’s love in Jesus.  Jesus himself told us: “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).  God’s love is complete on its own and needs nothing to be added by the one he loves.  There is nothing we can make to stop God loving us.

How else does God love us?  He loves us without measure through the Baptism.  Adoption is a committed action of love.  In our Baptism, God adopted us and we became His own children.  He gave us new life.  He put our names in the “book of life.”  We became heirs of his kingdom.

God also loves us without measure through His Word and Supper.  Our love needs substance.  All creature needs nourishment.  God nourishes us through his Word and Sacraments.  And how does God nourish our love?  Only Love Himself can feed our love.

God is love.  And He created us to be like him–to love.  The only reason we’re able to love with a true God-like love is because such love comes from God.  We are like the moon, which is bright and beautiful.  The moon doesn’t have own light; the moon reflects the light of the sun.  Like the moon, we reflect the love of God.

Through His Word God feeds us.  Through the body and blood of Jesus, God make us strong.  Remember the cross of Christ, but also where God give you the gifts that Jesus won for you there.  When you do that, you will remember that you love because God first loved you!

But God doesn’t only love us to save us.  God doesn’t only love us to keep His love hidden inside us.  An old quotation in Latin says: “Love, like a cough, cannot be kept secret.”  If God loves us and we love God, we must love one another.  The expert in love, John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, wrote: “Let us not love with word or tongue, but in deed and truth” (1 John 3:18). Also, “Whoever loves God must also love his brother” (1 John 4:21).

The Bible describes love–not as feelings–by in actions, commitment, and choices.  So often we act based on how something may benefit us.  But, true love does not depend on the one whom we love.  This is so different from our modern ideas of love, where we fall in and out of love depending on the actions of the one we love.  Let us not forget, God is love.  His love in us enables to love others.

It works like this.  The God for you in Word and Sacrament becomes the God in you.  And since God is love, you live out the love of God in you toward others.  It’s God for you.  It’s God in You.  And it’s God through you.

After receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, Mother Teresa responded to a question someone asked her.  She said, “What can you do to promote world peace?  Go home and love your family.”

Indeed, love your friends, family, and others whom God has placed in your life.  Indeed, love them without measure.  To love others in such a way, the love God has for you needs to be more than head knowledge.  It needs to burn within you as a passion.  For you can only love in such a way if you are in love with God.  It’s that love that compels us to love others, seeing how we can serve Christ Himself through serving others (Matthew 25:40).

The Apostle Paul tells us, “For I am sure that nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord: not death or life, not angels or demons, not the present or the future, not any powers or height or depth, nor anything else in all creation” (Romans 8:38-39).

God is love.  We love because He first loved us.  He loves us with a steadfast love, without measure.  God’s love gives us the ability to love others and to pass it on.  Yes, pass it on, for how can you do anything else with the love of Christ coursing within you?  Amen.