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The Love Principle - Study 22: Love as Nature

  • 3 days ago
  • 14 min read

Updated: 22 hours ago

1 John 4:7-12 NIVUK

[7] Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. [8] Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. [9] This is how God showed his love among us: he sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. [10] This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. [11] Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. [12] No-one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

When you are in the United Kingdom, you need to take care when you buy ice cream. Most cheaper vanilla ice cream contains no vanilla at all. In fact, a survey by ‘Which?’ consumer magazine found that one in five ice creams they tested lacked real vanilla, cream or even milk.


So they were basically just flavoured ice.


The character of things really matters. We all want to get what we paid for. None of us wants to be fobbed off with a fake or a replacement. We want the real thing.


It’s the same with Christianity, and it’s definitely the same with love. Cubic zirconia might be a relatively convincing double for a diamond, but fake Christianities and fake loves are like comparing a diamond with a mud pie – there really is no comparison. They do not resemble the real thing at all.


And how can we tell the difference?


As Jesus Himself said:


John 13:35 NIVUK

[35] By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.’

It’s love. Love is the difference maker.


But we might be forgiven for thinking that love is something we feel or something we do. If it’s only something we feel, then we leave ourselves open to one day not feeling it anymore.


This is where many relationships falter. We assume that we will always feel the same. We won’t. That’s just how it is.


Neither should we go chasing that first flush of romance all the time. There are fewer things more deceptive than that. How many people have met someone who were an expert at manipulating romantic emotion, but were a complete and utter cad?


Neither can love just be something we do. Think about it: anyone can pretend to love someone else and pull out all the stops to do it, yet have an entirely selfish ulterior motive.


No, what the Bible teaches us that love should be who we are. It should be part of our character, part of our nature. It should be our default position, our normal reaction, not something we have to pretend or put on an act to display.


After all, God is not fooled.


In this simple study, we will see three examples of what it truly means to have love as an intrinsic part of our character and identity.


The first of these is Where Love Cane From.


Where Love Came From

1 John 4:7-8 NIVUK

[7] Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. [8] Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 

I work for a media publishing company. Journalists in our company, as well as many others, have written biographies of many famous people. They almost always sell well. People love to read about the lives of others.


But here’s the thing: it’s possible to write a biography of someone without ever knowing them. We might meticulously research our book. We might speak to people who knew then. We might think we know them because of all the information we have acquired. However, the reality is that if we have not spent time with then, we don’t really know them.


It’s a bit like that with God. We can talk about Him all we want. We can write about Him all we want. We can think about Him and philosophise about Him all we want.


But if we don’t love, we don’t follow Him so we don’t know Him. He is a stranger to us.


That is what John wrote here. And not just here:


1 John 2:7-11 NIVUK

[7] Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. [8] Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining. [9] Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. [10] Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. [11] But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.

1 John 3:14-15 NIVUK

[14] We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. [15] Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.

Remember also what we saw in the last study:


John 13:34-35 NIVUK

[34]  ‘A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. [35] By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.’

Love is the one thing above all others that marks us out as a follower of Jesus Christ. Of course, it is faith in Jesus Christ that saves us, but faith produces obedience, and obedience must produce love.


If it doesn’t, then it’s not obedience.


In case somehow you might think this is just John’s obsession, take a look at these verses:


Romans 12:9-10 NIVUK

[9] Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. [10] Be devoted to one another in love. Honour one another above yourselves.

Galatians 5:13-14 NIVUK

[13] You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. [14] For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ 

Ephesians 4:2 NIVUK

[2] Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/113/eph.4.2.NIVUK)


1 Peter 4:8 NIVUK

[8] Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/113/1pe.4.8.NIVUK)


But how do we know how to love? How do we know what true love looks like?


It would be impossible to obey Jesus’ commandment if we had no idea what true love looks like. If you think about it, no baby is born walking or talking. They have to learn these things by observing what other people do, by listening to the sounds they make, by mimicking them until they become like them.


This is how John said we learn to love. We learn to love not because God taught us the theory of love so we could pass an exam, we learn to love because God is love. It is His Divine nature.


When I was young, someone was said to be godly if they were morally upright and treated people nicely. From these verses, we see that it takes a lot more than that to be godly. To be godly we must love. If we don’t love, then we are not godly.


It’s that simple.


Love came from God because God is love. When we truly love, we are more godly than we ever could be by doing anything else.


So how godly are you?


So we see that love came from God, and that we are truly like Him when we love because God is love. It is His character; His essential nature.


But apart from where it comes from, we also see What It Came To.


What It Came To

1 John 4:9-10 NIVUK

[9] This is how God showed his love among us: he sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. [10] This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

There are many people nowadays who are participating in drug trials to alleviate serious health issues. Some of them will not be given the drug, but will be given a placebo instead – a medication that will do them neither harm nor good.


Now, drug trials must be ethical. Those with serious conditions will be given some treatment. They will just not be given treatment with the experimental drug. The use of placebos cannot place a patient in a position of harm.


However, in a survey of 1,600 randomised drug trials with more than a quarter of a million participants, placebo control groups were widely used. Statistics tell us that one in twenty patients receiving a placebo drug without prior knowledge were likely to experience an adverse health event during the trial.


Why am I talking about drug trials?


You have a sick patient. They are given a placebo. It does no harm. It does no good. It does precisely nothing at all.


If we say we love someone, but do nothing with or about that love, our love is a placebo. It does no good. It does no harm. It does precisely nothing.


John taught that such a love was no love at all:


1 John 3:16-18 NIVUK

[16] This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. [17] If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? [18] Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.

Love is not a verb. It is not something we do. But its existence, strength and efficacy is proved by what we do.


The thing is, though, God did not just tell us to love and leave us without an example to follow. The fact is that He did not just tell us He loves us, he also showed us that He loves us:


Romans 5:6-8 NIVUK

[6] You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. [7] Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. [8] But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Now this is a very important concept. God’s character is love. That love is proved by the cross. That love is the reason why we love.


We love God because He first loved us.


We love our neighbours because God loves them and died for their sins as well as ours. We love them and want them to be saved because we know that one day they will face justice for every wrong thing they have done. Those wrong things create a debt that will either be paid by them or by Christ on the cross.


For that reason, there is no grudge we should bear or unforgiveness we should carry. We are free to love our neighbours as ourselves because they too bear the image of our God.


We love ourselves because we know we are unworthy sinners, but when we lift our eyes to the cross we see the price Jesus Christ was willing to pay for our salvation and we realise we are worth something. We understand that Almighty God, who created us and knows us better than we know ourselves, sent His Only Son to die for us. Therefore we have value.


The cross changes everything. The cross is a more powerful symbol of love than any love heart, any rose or any human sacrifice.


Back in the 1980s, Foreigner sung ‘I Wanna Know What Love is’; Whitesnake asked ‘Is This Love?’ In 1993, Haddaway had a massive hit with ‘What Is Love?’


John pointed to the cross, at the foot of which he himself had stood, and said ‘This is love.’


And it is, because this is the outworking of God’s love for us.


He went that far.


Apart from where love came from and what it came to, we also see Where It Is Going.


Where It Is Going

1 John 4:11-12 NIVUK

[11] Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. [12] No-one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

The city of Glasgow has one of the oldest underground railway systems in the world. Its subway was opened in 1896.


However, it has another claim to fame. While every other underground railway system from a similar period has been expanded, the Glasgow subway has not. The trains still circulate on the same tracks and stop at more or less the same stations.


What’s more, it’s actually possible to buy a (relatively cheap) ticket and ride the Subway all day. Although I wouldn’t recommend it. It’s a bit noisy. And since the tunnels are quite low, it’s not a mode of transport that appeals to tall people.


It is possible to ride those trains and go nowhere.


God’s love is not at all like that.


When we examine God’s love, we see something so utterly, spectacularly beautiful that we could marvel at it for all eternity – which we absolutely could, and will.


But it was given to us for another purpose.


Have you ever gone somewhere simply stunningly beautiful and came home and shared pictures and videos of the place and listened to others coo their admiration over it? We could easily do that with God’s love. And many do. Churches are full of people that do exactly that.


But that’s not why it was given to us.


It was given to us to share. We are loved, so we love. That’s how it works.


In fact, not loving is a sure sign that we do not feel loved. And if we do not love, then we can very certain that we do not know God or the Gospel.


That is what John is saying.


We will go into the practicalities of this in my next study, but it will suffice for us to know now that loved people love; unloved people cannot love.


As we saw Jesus taught:


John 13:34-35 NIVUK

[34]  ‘A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. [35] By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.’

We are to love as we have been loved. Look how much Jesus loved:


John 13:1 NIVUK

[1] It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/113/jhn.13.1.NIVUK)


Jesus knew the Father’s plan. He knew who was deceiving Him, who would betray Him, who would deny Him, who would abandon Him.


Yet He loved them to the uttermost and gave His life to save them – and us.


To my mind, that makes this commandment to love as we have been loved the most challenging, the most exacting commandment in all Scripture.


Yet it can’t just be something we do.


No, it must be who we are.


If we are to be godly.


If we are to be Christians.


Conclusion

1 John 4:7-12 NIVUK

[7] Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. [8] Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. [9] This is how God showed his love among us: he sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. [10] This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. [11] Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. [12] No-one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

Last year there were several high powered solar storms. They were so strong that even in our neighbourhood, which is absolutely not in a dark sky area, we were able to see a little of the Northern Lights. They weren’t exactly dancing like they do over somewhere like Iceland or Northern Scandinavia, or even in some of the remote Scottish islands. But we at least saw them, which, for many people, is a real bucket list moment.


One night we headed out and took pictures of what we thought was a quite impressive display. There was plenty of colour on the horizon. We were pretty pleased with what we had taken, so we posted them onto a Northern Lights forum and asked people to check if what we had seen was indeed the Northern Lights.


However, our delight didn’t last long. What we had actually photographed on the horizon was flaring at the Mosmorran gas plant in Fife.


It was a light to the north of where had been standing, but it wasn’t the Northern Lights.


There are many nowadays who claim to be Christian, or who even claim to be religious. They say all sorts of things. They post all sorts of things. And in something so unseemly it should make us queasy, they convince many of their ‘fellow Christians’ to ride their coat-tales to power.


But it’s all a sham. It’s all fake. It’s nothing but an illusion.


We should not be surprised. Such fakery has always been around:


2 Corinthians 11:13-15 NIVUK

[13] For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. [14] And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. [15] It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.

There is only one litmus test for genuine Christianity.


It is not philosophy. I can believe in the existence of Australia, but it doesn’t mean that I’ll take to wearing a hat with corks on it, wrestling crocodiles and wanting to eat barbecue every day.


It is not theology. Just because I intellectually agree with how a frog is formed doesn’t mean that I’ll turn into a prince if you kiss me, or will get a job advertising a hotel company with a foam pig puppet.


It isn’t good deeds. Even the greatest of deeds can be done with an ulterior motive.


It isn’t even religious acts. I could go to church just to take pictures for Instagram, or fast to trim my waistline, or get baptised to cool off in hot weather, or give to the poor to look good on camera.


It’s love. It only ever was love. It will only ever be love.


The thing about love is that it demands integrity. It demands the truth. We cannot pretend to love. That isn’t love. We cannot ‘do’ love. We must ‘be’ love.


It must be part of our character, part of our nature, because it’s part of God’s.


We can try to fake it, but we will be found out. Eventually our ‘love’ will be stretched to the limit and will break.


But if our love is real, it will know no limits.


We have seen that love came from God, that it drove Jesus to die for us on the cross, and that this is the love we should show to others.


But now, it has to be our love too. If we have received it, we have to share it.


Because it’s love.


Prayer

Lord Jesus, thank You for loving more than anyone else ever could or would. I confess that without You I could never live anyone like You do. Show me how I can best show this love to others, I pray. Amen.


Questions for Contemplation

  • What is the only sign that someone is truly a Christian? Why is this the only sign?

  • What is the sign that God loves us? What difference does this make?

  • What specifically can you do to show to those around you that you are a Christian?

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