“No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.”

In the hours before Jesus is crucified, John 18:37–38 shows dialog between Him, and the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate,

“Then Pilate said to him, ‘So you are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.’ Pilate said to him, ‘What is truth?’…”

The ruling Jews, bent on seeing Jesus executed, do not truly understand Him – do not want to understand Him, and therein have given their own corrupt and biased views of Him to Pilate. Pilate, for his part, a Roman official, and in no way a Jew, asks a question with implications to the Roman empire. “So you are a king?” We see the Jews tell Pilate in John 19:12,

“If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.”

Pilate’s earlier question ties into this, as if Jesus calls Himself a king, that makes Him a figure claiming power unsanctioned by the Roman government – a usurper to be eliminated. Jesus however, as we’ve seen again and again, did not come to lead an earthly kingdom, but to fulfill the will of God – to bear witness to the truth. The truth is that Jesus is not a king, He’s the King. The King of kings. The revolution He has come to bring about isn’t one of worldly pursuits, a threat to the Romans, but is a spiritual one. Jesus didn’t come to bring freedom from imperial oppression, but from the far more lasting problem of sin. Pilate seems to grasp that Jesus is not a threat to the empire as He’s being accused, but his question, “what is truth?” grants an enormous amount of insight into not just the mind of the Roman governor, but humanity as a whole. The question can read as cynical, and it may have been intended that way, but it’s important to consider that from the perspective Roman culture, it may not have been. Remember, much of the Roman empire was previously settled by Alexander the Great, a man tutored by the Greek philosopher Aristotle, who made a point of spreading the Hellenist culture throughout his kingdom. By the first century, there was still a heavy emphasis on different philosophical teachings throughout the world. We see a glimpse of this in Acts 17, when Paul converses with some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers, who take him to address the people at the Areopagus. As Christians, we have a concrete and fundamental definition of Truth. Jesus says in John 14:6,

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

And in John 14:15–17 He tells us,

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”

The Truth is singular and fixed, it is manifested in Christ, it is the very Spirit of the Word of the Lord. This is something that the world is blind to, that sin has never comprehended. As I said, Pilate’s question may have meant to be cynical, and mocking, but his take on what truth was would have been heavily influenced by the philosophers of the time. To them, the truth was malleable and subjective. It could be manifested in the individual, it may be bringing yourself in line with your own nature, or it might not exist at all, depending on who you ask. We can look at ancient philosophers and dead empires and time can distort the lens, so that what we see looks entirely different from what we know today, but it’s not. As Jesus said, “… even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him.” The world is the world, sin is sin, God is God – the passage of time, the shifting of cultures, and the overall advancement of civilization changes none of this. The world has no better grasp of Truth today than the first century Romans did, and the Holy Spirit delivers Truth just as perfectly as it always has. I bring all this up, because what can be said about Truth can be said about Love. The ideas of the Greek philosophers were just as varied concerning love as they were truth, and the world is no better off now. Humanity can and will apply nearly any arbitrary or sometimes blasphemous definition to love, because they have no understanding of what love truly is. The philosophers had their “eros,” their romantic, passionate love, as well as “philia,” a friendly sort of love. The word “agape,” existed in the Greek language prior to the writing of the New Testament, but it was in the rise of Christianity that gave it the meaning we know today. Paul gives a vivid description of what the all-encompassing, sacrificial, “agape” love means in 1 Corinthians 13,

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

As if that wasn’t enough, 1 John 4:8 tells us,

“Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

God is Love. Just as Jesus is the Truth, as He is the Light, so we see that in God, true and righteous Love is manifested. Agape, the kind of love that is not of the flesh, that is pure and undefiled, that the world cannot comprehend. Bearing this in mind, lets look into today’s passage and explore the Love we may come to know through Christ.

The Greatest of These is Love

1.      Love Transforms

“No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.”

The world has never done a good job of describing the nature or qualities of Christ. I’ve heard it said more than once, by nonbelievers as well as those who claim to be Christians, that they find the simplicity of salvation to be a hang up for them. Using hyperbole to emphasize their point they say, “so you mean to tell me that I can live however I want, I can lie, cheat, and steal, and on my deathbed, I can say ‘save me Jesus,’ and go to heaven? That just doesn’t make sense.” I had one young lady go so far as to tell me that if there were going to be rapists and murderers in heaven, it didn’t sound like the place it was promised to be. The problem (or at least the most obvious problem), is a vast oversimplification of salvation. Salvation is simple, but that doesn’t mean it’s not complex. There is nothing I can do to earn or work for my salvation. It is a gift, bought by the blood of Christ, of God made flesh and poured out for me and my transgressions. I don’t receive salvation by saying some words, by going to church or singing in the choir – redemption comes in accepting the truth of what God has done, and you can’t do that without acknowledging your existing debt. To put a finer point on it – there are no rapists or murderers in heaven. There will be people who were those things, but not people who are those things. Paul beat and imprisoned Christians, and looked upon the stoning of Stephen with approval. Yet God took him and raised him to be an Apostle, a chief church planter, and the writer of most of the New Testament. You cannot look at Paul before and after his salvation and call him the same man. He wrote in Romans 7:18, 24-25

“For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out…” “… Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.”

He wrote in Ephesians 4:17–24,

“Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

The Love of God, as with the Word of God, as with the Spirit of God, is not stagnant, but is living, breathing, active and transformative. Whether one comes to know Christ at an early age, or comes to faith at the moment of their bodily death, they do not remain the same person, but are transformed by the Love of God. Because to see God is to see Truth, and to see Truth is to know righteousness, and by comparison, sin. You cannot look upon your own debt, know the price that was paid through the revelation of the Spirit and remain the same. By God we are freed from our blindness, given sight in Him that we may see the blackness of our sin, and in seeing it for what it is, no longer delight in it, no longer carry on sinning as we did before, full of lawlessness. To stumble or struggle may be part of our flesh, but we are liberated in Truth from the ability to sin as we had before, we are made new in Him – righteous as He is righteous. This is not some casual or lighthearted matter, though the joy of salvation will without question lighten your heart. As Paul wrote in Galatians 2:20,

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

We are redeemed, transformed, washed clean, and made new by the Love of God, revealed on the cross, and in the empty tomb.

2.      Love Adopts

“By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.”

If the true Love of God transforms us, then what does it transform us into? We saw in the cited Galatians passage, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” We are covered and redeemed by His blood, we are indwelled with His Spirit, and we are adopted as children of God. Paul wrote in Romans 8:15–17,

“For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”

In being raised to a child of God, to a co-heir with Christ we are called to be like Christ – something that is only possible through the transformation of the Spirit. Peter wrote in 1 Peter 1:14–16,

“As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’”

If we are acting in the Spirit that has indwelled us, there is evidence which attests to our adopted status. Paul wrote in Galatians 5:22–24,

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

To be clear, this isn’t a works based system, we don’t display these qualities and by them are righteous, but are made righteous and because of the work of the Spirit in our lives, we show these things. Conversely, Paul provided another list just before giving this one, in Galatians 5:19–21,

“Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

This gives us a larger illustration of what John wrote in today’s passage. Those who are changed in Christ, who are adopted as children of God, reflect the light, the righteousness of their creator. John goes on to write in 1 John 3:17–18,

“But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”

To love your brother, to pray for him, care for him, and seek his welfare again gives credence to your adoption by the Father, while on the other hand, to turn your back on his suffering shows worldliness. These passages help us see and understand the light that we have in the Love of Christ, as it stands in sharp contrast to the darkness of the world.

3.      Love is the Greatest Commandment

While scripture is filled cover to cover, overflowing with the peace and Truth and wisdom of God, my favorite Bible verse has long been 1 John 3:16. I was drawn to it when I was pretty young, and while I’ve read many, many verses and passages that I dearly love, this one verse has held up as the one I call my favorite. As we’ve discussed, the world will offer you a definition of love that changes by the minute, but 1 John 3:16 give a short and succinct guideline by which we can truly know what Love is.

“By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.”

This directly references the words of Jesus in John 15:12–14,

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.”

When asked what the greatest commandment is, Jesus replies in Matthew 22:37–38,

“… You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.”

That we love God, fully and completely is our greatest calling, our highest aim. But Jesus continues in Matthew 22:39–40,

“And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

The entirety of the Old Testament, all of the Law handed to Moses, all of the words of God spoken by the prophets, it all rides on this. While we may read the Old Testament and get bogged down in all the rules and particulars of proper worship and atonement, it helps to have this point of singular focus, to know that the foundation upon which it all stands, is love. Love of God above all else, but in a similar fashion, love of your brothers and sisters, of your fellow man. To regard a lost and dying world with compassion – thirsty for justice, yet sorrowful for those who will reject the gift of salvation, tenderhearted, and filled with the mercy we have been shown. As John put so simply in 1 John 4:19,

“We love because he first loved us.”

In a time of year when things can turn so materialistic, when love can be watered down to showing up at a family gathering and swapping obligatory gifts, it bears remembering what true Love is. That by Love we were saved, by it we were changed, and by it we have been called children of God. That in Love we may know true hope, and peace, and joy, to a degree that goes infinitely beyond anything the world can comprehend, let alone offer. Because God is Love. And that Love was manifested, Holy God made flesh, when the prophecies were fulfilled, when the virgin gave birth, and the angels rejoiced that peace was on the earth. God pours out His blessings and comfort on His children, but may we always remember, as Paul wrote under the guiding hand of the Holy Spirit, “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

Pastor Chris’s sermon (on 1 John 4:9-10): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uGd2aX0vLs