1John 4:14 - Save The Humans

”And we ourselves have seen and are witnessing that the Father has sent the Son [as] Savior of the world.”

-Some say, save the whales.  Or save the bees.  Or save the children.  Or even save the planet.  Some are thinking about quality of life, taking better care of something, saving it from misuse.  Others are on to more of this idea of an extinction level of catastrophe.  So many causes.  So many things to which, for which one could give their LIFE.  But how ‘bout this one?  Save the world.  Not the physical world, per se, but its inhabitants, the 7-plus billion of them.  That’s what Jesus talked about (John 3.17, 12.47), saving humanity one soul at a time (Luke 19.10, 9.56, 8.12; Mark 8.35).  Save the humans.  That’s what He gave His life for.  This is that one ultimate cause which compelled Him to step down out of heaven’s glory, take on fragile human flesh, and enter in to the brokenness of humanity.  He came to save the world, to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19.10).  Me.  Us.  The humans.  He is our Savior.  Curiously, He never once called Himself Savior.  No matter.  There is salvation in no other Name (Acts 4.12).  And curiously, this is the only time John mentions this concept in the entire letter.

-And the stakes could be no higher.  The fact of there being such a thing as salvation, of there being a need to be saved implies some kind of danger.  But here we’re not just talking about missing out on a better quality of life, or even of failing to add a few extra years here and there.  The real danger here is that one would lose their very soul.  So great a peril - so many don’t even know or care to acknowledge the fact that they even have a soul to begin with, this part of them which was made to live on forever after their physical body ceases to function.  Materialism, existentialism - all that appears “real”, what you can see and feel and touch - this all that matters to them.  But are we not so much more than an animated collection of chemicals?  Do we not have the capacity for love and for dreams and all kinds of good and evil, the thoughts and intentions of the heart?  There are myriads of realities which we can neither feel nor see.  For his part, John did see the real Son of God, this One Who revealed the unseen God, Who brought to light the truth that there is a God, that He so loves me and so desires a relationship with me, and He sent His Son to save me from an eternity of being separated from Him.  Sin - my sin, our sin - had made this separation between us and God, and that separation becomes permanent if something isn’t done to rectify the situation.  Forever separated from God, from the One Source of love and light - that is the real danger.  There are no pleasant descriptions of this anywhere in Scripture.  There is no worse fate than this, and it was this danger which compelled God’s Son to climb down out of heaven and up onto that cross.  He is Savior, the One and Only.  Thanks be to God...

1John 4:13 - On Repetition and Redundancy and Repetition. And Pudding.

"In this we are knowing that in Him we are abiding and He in us, that out of His Spirit He has given to us."

-Some commentators skip right over this verse altogether.  It’s only been 13 verses, and already John is reminding us of the truth which he just shared in 1Jn 3.24.  The wording is almost identical.  Here it is slightly modified, however, in that he now uses the perfect tense.  Here it is not, He GAVE us His Spirit.  Here John says, He HAS GIVEN us His Spirit.  The difference is subtle, but significant.  It means not only did God give us His Spirit, sometime in the past, but that there are - or should be - continuing results in the present.  It wasn’t simply this sealing, this divine down payment on eternity.  No, it is this power, this gifting and enabling to be able to love one another and serve and build up one another here in the present, every day, week in and week out, to completely override our own weakness and indifference.  And the difference God’s Spirit makes should be by no means subtle.  This is dry bones come to life.  This is Lazarus raised from the dead and freed from those ratty old grave clothes.  This is the new creation!  Christ lives in me!  The Holy Spirit, this divine Helper, is sent to help us do these greater works, the first and foremost of which is this new-old command to love one another.  And again, this is the proof of the pudding.  This proves to the world - and to us - that God is truly in us, that He lives in us and is abiding in us, that we really do have a personal relationship with Him.

-Some people hate redundancy.  And for good reason.  So do I.  You hate to pay for the same ground twice.  Redundant = unnecessary (or so it would seem).  And this feels redundant.  Great truth, for sure, but it still feels unnecessary for John to repeat himself, especially so soon after he just said this.  It feels superfluous.  BUT... John clearly does not feel it is unnecessary to repeat himself here.  He feels he must in fact do so.  It is the power of repetition.  Repeating something can become annoying at times.  The overplayed song or commercial.  My eldest child, whom I love dearly, is rather fond of finding an otherwise innocuous sound and repeating it incessantly until it becomes truly annoying.  I have no idea where he gets this of course...  :)  But repetition does two things: it signifies a point of emphasis, and it facilitates retention.  No doubt this is in John’s mind (and God’s), as he wants these believers to be able to know for sure that God has accepted them and saved them.  He wants to emphasize this truth, and drive it home into their (and our) thick heads.  So he is repeating himself, variations on a theme.  Look for this holy divine Presence, His power in your life.  Look for these glimpses of the Lord of heaven come down to earth and loving His children - through you.  Look for these evidences of sharing and giving and lives-downlaying in your assembly.  They should be there, right out there in plain sight for all to see.  This is how we know...

1John 4:12 - God's avatars?

"God no one ever has seen.  If one another we may be loving, God in us is abiding and His love in us is having been perfected."

-No, no one has seen God face-to-face, ever (and in fact, no mere mortal in their fallen state can see Him and live - Exodus 33.20).  The magnificent exception of course is Jesus (John 6.46).  Plus if you see/saw Jesus in the flesh you have basically seen the Father.  He said so Himself (John 14.9).  Moses famously did get a glimpse of the divine backside (Exodus 33.21-23), and he was privileged to have unparalleled access to the Lord, direct “face-to-face” conversations with some form of God (Numbers 12.8, Exodus 34.10, Deuteronomy 34.10).  But clearly this had to have been more face-to-back, or face-to-form.  But even ol’ Mo didn’t get a full frontal view of the Lord.  And for the rest of us, before or after Moses - no one.  Not one of us.

-But do you see what John is saying here?  There is this awesome avatar arrangement which could provide the souls around us who were designed for glory the chance to glimpse the embodiment of the glorious God.  And this unprecedented opportunity to manifest the divine essence falls to the people of God, in whom His Spirit dwells.  We can give those around us a glimpse of His perfect love made perfect in us.  If and when we as His beloved children are able to come together and be loving one another, it gives the world the chance to see God, to catch a glimpse of the divine, of what He is like.  Because, again, He is love.  We are not more like Him than when we are loving one another.  This is the way we as God’s people realize the perfection and completion of His love.  This is the way the world knows that God is among us, that He lives among us and in us.  And this is what the world needs now, what it needs from the Church.  Love sweet love, God’s agape love, to manifest itself from every pore and fiber of our being in our relationships with one another.  The New Testament church crushed this out of the park.  It was said of these early believers, “Behold, how they love one another.” They spent time together and ate their meals together and shared their stuff with one another and served together.  They had so much fun and joy with one another, it was almost too much.  The haters said they were drunk.  They did their darnedest to try and break up the party.  But many of those on the outside who got this glimpse of God in their midst by how the first Christians loved one another wanted in.  They wanted some of that.

-How about the ones today, standing on the outside looking askance at Christ, waxing cynical and disillusioned as they observe church-split after church-split on top of corruption and depravity?  Christians hating one another and leaving one another and criticizing one another and divorcing one another and living in unforgiveness towards one another?  Not only do those outside not see sacrificial unconditional love, they get a heaping helping of entirely the opposite.  Don’t you think they would want some of that perfect-God-love also, if only they ever got a glimpse?  Shall we not give it to them, let ‘em have it...?  Well, we need to start by giving it to one another.  Giving love to one another.  Giving to one another, a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over.  We need to bring our A game.  With all our doing, we need to do this.  By God’s grace and power, we can.  We must.  We will.

1John 4:11 - The Holy Ghost Boot Scoot Boogie

"Beloved, if thus God loved us, we ourselves also are obligated to be loving one another."

-Beloved.  Yes, we are beloved - by John, to be sure, as he has said repeatedly, but more importantly by our heavenly Father.  He loved us thus, by sending His Son to be the all-sufficient sacrifice and pay the just penalty for our sins.  Thus did God love us.

-And thus we have an obligation.  A debt which we owe, and which we must pay.  We HAD a debt, a different one, a much bigger one than this.  Huge.  Unimaginably huge.  Unpayable.  And God stepped up, Jesus stepped down, and paid it.  Our Creditor paid our bill, basically.  He picked up the check.  So now we owe Him in a different way, but we still owe Him big time.  This happens to be the same debt we looked at in 1John 3.16.  This debt we pay in installments.  Now we pay Him back every day by paying it forward to others.  This debt we pay back not because we are guilty, but rather because now we are no longer guilty.  And so we do unto others what God did for us.  We love them.  We love our neighbors, we love our enemies.  And especially we love the ones who have also received this love, who are following Jesus next to us, running right beside us - we love them well.  Sacrificially.  Every day, we go out of our way.  And we love them to the end (John 13.1).  Just like Jesus.  We lay down outlives for them.  Whatever that looks like.  Cuz they are family.

-But no one-way transaction, this.  This is reciprocating love.  A shared imperative.  Yes, it is a plural command - all of you be doing this together.  Be loving one another, John says (but remember, Jesus said it first!).  This is community, ongoing and growing common unity.  Life lived together, time spent (or rather invested) together, life-on-life.  This is sharing, giving AND receiving, meeting one another’s needs - a little bit of messiness and a whole lotta joy (koinonia!).  Indeed, this tango takes two.  Or more.  But certainly more than one.  This is not just you out there on the floor shakin your thing all by your lonesome.  This is a group dance.  A conga line.  Or a line dance.  That’s right - we’re talking a Holy Ghost Boot Scoot Boogie.  This thing simply does not work with just one person.  There is no unrequited love here (which as we all know is the WORST kind of love).  No, you know what this is - it is synergy.  Solo love is a wonderful thing, no doubt, but when two or more begin to get some traction on actually loving one another, then watch out.  Step back and watch God get busy.  The resulting whole will be so much greater than the sum of their individual parts.  Be loving ONE ANOTHER, John says, all y’all.  Yes, brothers and sisters, MY brothers and sisters, all of us, WE are a WE and unto this we are co-obligated.  It’s a shared debt, and we pay it back together.

-There are more than 100 of these "one anothers" in the New Testament, and every last one of them is just a variation on a theme, on this one basic step, which is, be loving one another.  The greatest of these, to be sure.  This is where you live, right here.  This is home.  There is no start the fire, no q-tips, no make the pizza.  Don’t need no pizza, they got food there.  All I’m saying is that this is not rocket science.  This is not complicated.  All the best strategies and buildings and programs will fail to rise above the level at which we fulfill this one, most basic command.  Let’s make sure with all our doing that we are doing this...

1John 4:10 - Operation Propitiation (say what?)

"In this is the love, not that we ourselves have loved God, but rather because He Himself loved us and He sent His Son a propitiation about our sins."

-God is love.  Everything about Him is love, and all love comes from Him.  Now we have an example, and John says, IN this is love.  So this example is not the be-all end-all only way to love - but it is the consummate archetype.  This act of love shows us love - and shows us how to love.

-But let us be perfectly clear about the situation here.  We do have (or had, for those who are IN Christ) a sin problem.  And things are bad - in fact, they couldn’t get much worse.  Our sins not only separated us from God (Isaiah 59.2, Romans 3.23), they incurred His wrath.  They made the God-Who-is-love angry.  He hates sin, our sin, my sin.  To be sure, He doesn’t hate me, or you, but He does really hate our sin.  He can’t even look at it.  And the penalty for sin is death (Romans 6.23).  Death is the awful consequence of our heinous sin (Romans 5.12).  But in the midst of that tragic news is the silver lining, in that sin can be - wait for it - propitiated.

-So yes, the God-Who-is-love sent His Son - His only begotten Son (we just touched on this) to be the propitiation for our sins.  The propitiation.  What is that, anyways?  That wins the award for churchiest word ever.  It is something which propitiates a god or spirit.  Well, that’s not helpful.  Propitiate means to win or regain the favor of a god by doing something which pleases them.  Maybe we are more familiar with the word, propitious.  Something which is favorable.  In this case, there is a God, and we have lost favor with Him, fallen completely out of favor, in fact, by living into a mindset and lifestyle which favored me over Him.  Me first, me-myself-and-I.  Me and other things (anything other) in His rightful place.  Because this God, He made me.  He fashioned me and all we earthly sojourners out of so much dust, breathed into us the miraculous breath of life, burdening us with glorious purpose and blessing us with the best of Himself.  To which we kicked Him off the throne of our lives and basically stuck Him on a bus to Altoona.  Nothing wrong with Altoona.  But we took over - that is sin - and this sin had to be paid for.  The good news is that it CAN be paid for!  Although there’s a catch - it can only be paid for by the shedding of blood.  The blood sacrifice of a innocent (sinless) person is the only way to fully expiate (pay for and remove) the guilt of someone’s sin - and that is because life is in the blood.  We don’t think much about blood sacrifice anymore in the west.  Seems so primitive and barbaric.  Our culture doesn’t spend much time trying to appease an angry god or spirit.  But don’t you think much of that is because of the truth of what God did in sending His Son to be the final all-sufficient sacrifice for our sins, and that all that is needed now is to trust in that, to believe in Him?  Is it not fair to say that this truth has indeed so effectively permeated and transformed our culture that this is one huge reason why we have moved beyond the more instinctive appeasement approach?  Go to other parts of the world, other cultures, and observe the appeasement mindset still in full flower, how desperate are the peoples of the world to appease divine anger against their sins.

-But the point is - we were off the ranch, and God brought us back.  He loved us.  We were so far out of favor, and it was our fault, but God rebuilt the bridge.  He restored us to favor with Him, undertook the whole operation by Himself.  We basically brought nothing to the table.  He loved us first - more on this in verse 19 (1John 4.19).  God sent His Son, He sent His only Son - John says it three times in this paragraph alone - to be the all-sufficient sacrifice for our sins.  THE Propitiation.  To shed His perfect blood and fully turn away God’s wrath from us so that we could come home to Him in our hearts.  And in doing so He set us totally free from being enslaved to appeasement, He has set us free from the law of sin and death, no more condemnation or guilt anymore because God sent His Son (Romans 8.1-2).  Surely words are inadequate to express the depth of gratitude which we must have towards our Father in heaven, Who so loved us... Thank. You. Lord.

1John 4:9 - Love Shows Up

"In this was revealed the love of God in us, that His only Son God has sent unto the world in order that we should live through Him."

-God is love - and so He loved.  God so loved, and God thus did.  He did something which demonstrated His love.  Because love is a verb.  Love acts, love does, love shows up, it shows itself.  Yes, love is a show-off - it shows up and shows off, but not in the traditional meaning of that word.  It is not at all about self.  Rather it is totally focused on the beloved.  And love does not consist in empty words and sentiment.  It does not subsist on the vagaries of fickle feelings.  It is fueled in a heart of compassion at the ready.  It makes itself known, it reveals itself to the beloved.  It moves to meet the need of the one so loved, whatever the cost, even at great cost to the one loving.  

And this is what God did, in this God showed His love to us - He sent His Son, His one and only Son, into the world.  This Son He gave - for us.  He sacrificed His Son, for us.  In order that, so that we who were His enemies, we who were dead and dying should have life eternal.  That’s the reason, the purpose for which Christ was sent (1John 4.14).  I have two sons - I would be loathe to give up either one of them to save the life of another.  I mean, if you love your son, there’s no way.  How much more difficult would it be if we’re talking about your only son?  What if it was to save the world, to save the lives of billions?  Would you do it then?  I can’t even say that I could do that.  My own son, the apple of my eye, handing him over to my enemies for them to torture and execute him?  What great, amazing love the Father revealed in us, so that through the horrific death of His only Son we should have life through the same.  This love - and the life that it imparts - changes everything.  It changes my destiny forever.  And it changes my perspective and my life in the present - because it compels me to no longer live for myself.  Both out of gratitude and in following in the footsteps of this exemplary sacrifice, I give up my own life, my wants, my dreams, my plans, even my family, for the sake of knowing and following Him, for the sake of making Him famous (2Corinthians 5.14-15).  I become a love distributor!

-Yes, God revealed His love to us AND in us.  Not only do we see it and know it and experience it as we learn about it and begin to believe it and trust in it and then experience it poured out in our hearts (Romans 5.5), but it then spills out to those around, to those we know, to our family and our neighbors, to our city and to the nations.  God’s love becomes visible in and through us as we begin to love with the love with which He first loved us.  That is John’s point in this letter, that this love, God’s true agapé love multiplies, it replicates, by its very nature.  It is not something which I can receive and keep to myself, much less continue to contradict with actions of hatred or opposition, particularly towards God’s people.  If that is where I think I am, love coming in, got my fire insurance, yeah Jesus loves me this I know - but no love going out, then I am seriously deluded.

-Yep, love shows up.  In the kitchen, at the hospital, next door - with words and deeds which meet real needs.  And it's coming back...  (Lord, help me to love like that...)

1John 4:8 - THE Verb

"The [one] not loving did not know God, since God is love."

-No love, no God.  And the converse is also true - no God, no love.  Because God is love.  Yes, let’s say it again - God is love.  God.  Is.  Love.  This famous phrase appears only twice in all of Scripture, for the first time right here, and then in the very next paragraph.  It is one of the most profound yet simple statements in all of literature.  Yes, God is love.  He is the most loving Being in the universe, to the n-th degree and beyond.  Always and forever, love.  From everlasting to everlasting, love.  You can’t even wrap your mind around it, it is so immense, so wide and long and high and deep as to be incomprehensible.  Altho we can - and by all means (including prayer) certainly should endeavor to do so (as in Paul - Ephesians 3.17-19).  But right now, right here, God is love, and God so loves.  Inexhaustible uncontainable immeasurable love, overflowing, overwhelming unconditional love, giving, sacrificing, pursuing-that-which-is-good-for-the-other love.  It’s-not-about-me love.  Others-first others-more-important love.  This love is not about me, about how I feel.  It’s not about my happiness as the be all and end all.  This is love which finds its greatest satisfaction in giving itself away for the sake of another.  This is God, and He IS love.  Love incarnate.  Love with skin on - and He so wants to so love others with His love THROUGH US.  Love is not just what He is like, it is what He DOES.  Because love is NOT a feeling - it is a verb.  THE Verb.  It acts, it gives, it flows out and touches, works for the good of the world and those around us.

-Everything about God is characterized by love.  All love, all the time.  And so we must ask, where is the love?  What about the love?  Particularly, God's love in me directed towards His children, my brother and sister in Christ?  How am I doing at loving them?  How are we doing at loving one another?  Because our Daddy, this is what He is like.  He is all about this.  The consummate "Love Machine".  And He has designed it such that love is the be-all end-all goal of following Christ - love for Him, and for others, especially for His people.  And His children are to be little love machines running all over showing His love to peoples everywhere.  So much so that the person who is not loving, who is not “doing” the love thing very likely “did not” (come to) know God (not yet at least).  There is not a time in their life when they put their faith in His Son.  As best we can tell, they are not “out of” God, He has not worked in them a rebirth of love.  Now, it IS possible they may be having a bad day, or going through a rough season - it happens to everyone, right?  But when you look at their life, and how they live over a period of time, if you do not see love, this giving sacrificing doing love which comes only from God, then it is safe to assume that this person has not yet come to know the God Who is love.  And yes, unbelievers are certainly capable of rising to great acts of sacrifice and generosity - but we’re talking a consistent lifestyle of this selfless love, something which is quite impossible to sustain apart from a heavenly reboot and daily divine enabling.  God help us indeed...