Praying House to House
This series is designed to turn our homes into beacons of prayer dotted throughout the greater Charlotte area – not by studying prayer, but by studying God.
1 John 4:7-14
Most churchy folks have heard that God is love, so we’ll tackle three related questions: So what? What does that even mean? and How should we respond?
So what?
Why should this matter to you? Here’s why: Because God is love, it is impossible to know him and not love (read verses 7-8 and 12-13). It is not possible to both know God and be unloving. Therefore, unloving Christians aren’t just morons, they’re oxymorons. (I know that’s harsh, but I like the play on words.)
Frogs hop. Teachers teach. Kids make messes. NASCAR fans cut the sleeves off their t-shirts. And Christians LOVE. So you may think you’re a Christian; but if you don’t love, you need to think again. This is one good reason this should matter to you.
What does that even mean?
Clearly we need to define love so we know what we’re talking about. Let’s scrub our minds of preconceived notions learned from Disney and Justin Bieber and figure out what John meant by it when he wrote this passage, looking specifically at verses 9-11.
Verse 9: Love appears in Christians by the gospel (the good news that God sent Jesus to save us).
Verse 10: Love is contained within the gospel.
Verse 11: Love flows from Christians as the gospel.
When John talks about love, he’s talking about the gospel. The gospel is how love gets in us and how it flows from us. So, you might say that love in the noun form is God. Love in the verb form is gospel. But this is all very abstract. Let’s stir it into concrete.
Coming to know God transforms a person into a “gospel lover”. Once a person receives gospel love, they transmit it to others in a love that is gospel-esque in both flavor and function. In other words, true love tastes like gospel and transforms like gospel.
Gospel Flavored Love: is sacrificial, unconditional, unmerited, and takes initiative (see verses 9 and 10).
Gospel Functioning Love: moves people toward God through Jesus.
This is the love John is talking about. It is impossible to know God and not love like this.
How should we respond to all this?
Read verses 7 and 11. Don’t respond to this by acting like you love people, flinging gospel tracts like ninja stars, abruptly turning conversations Godward, and being the weird religious guy or gal. Instead:
1. Be honest with yourself.
Do you have this gospel love in you? If not, don’t push all this from your mind and move on. Instead, spend some serious time in prayer to find out why. You are either not a Christian or you are a Christian who isn’t “abiding in God” (see verse 12-13). This can be very confusing and I don’t want to leave you hanging, so please feel free to contact me (matthewbroadway@gmail.com or 704.545.5893) if you want help sorting all this out.
2. Receive the gospel.
Either for the first time or as a reminder, spend some time reflecting on how God loved us through Jesus (see verses 9 and 10 again).
3. Be honest with others.
John isn’t telling us to do anything unnatural here. On the contrary, he’s reminding us of what is most natural to Christians. Gospel love is the natural fruit of the gospel seed. We don’t need to act loving. We just need to be honest with ourselves, go back to the gospel over and over again, and be honest with others.
[No discussion starter this week as we’ll be having our monthly gathering at the church rather than our usual House to House gatherings]
