Abiding in Love
“God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.”
1 John 4.16
Love is the powerful theme of today’s epistle and it relates of course to the Gospel, for abiding in the vine is to abide in the love of God and to bring forth the fruit of that love.
Even the Acts reading of Philip baptizing the Ethiopian eunuch reflects the love of God driving the infant church out of Jerusalem and to those who traditionally had been shut out from the love of God by a bigoted religious establishment.
It reminds me of a little verse by Edwin Markham which captures the essence of John’s teaching in his letters:
They drew a circle that shut me outSt John takes the two great apostolic foundations of the Christian faith - the incarnation and the atoning death of Christ - and clothes them in love. He uproots them from the realm of pure doctrinal necessity and plants them in the fertile soil of God’s great love for us.
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win
We drew a circle that took them in
Listen to his words: “In this is love - not that we loved God - but that he loved us - and sent his Son - to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (v10)
And then he draws the blindingly obvious conclusion from this: “Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.” (v11)
Now we might have expected him to conclude “Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love him.”
But no! Since God is love, both in essence and attitude - both in who he is and in what he does - then the fact that he is in us, through the mystical union of his Holy Spirit; this finds expression in our love for one another.
This is God’s ultimate purpose, the perfection of love as John calls it. He wants to reproduce his love in us so that we can pour out our love to others and so bring them into the circle of God’s embracing kindness.
People are often concerned that they don’t believe the right things. And it’s good to study and to expand our understanding of the faith. But John brings it all down to earth.
He presents a simple test. Is what you believe about God enabling you to love others, with kindness and good deeds? Is it leading you to a place of personal freedom?
Or, is what you believe leading you deeper into self-absorption; an inability to give yourself in love to others; an underlying fear of life and commitment?
Of course it’s never quite that simple. There will always be our daily failures and inadequacy.
There will always be room for improvement. There will always be adverse circumstances and impossible people. As the old doggerel puts it:
To dwell above with those we loveBut, John concludes, that if our belief in, and love for God results in a practical love for others, then we will not fear God or man.
O that will be glory;
But to dwell below with those we know
Is quite another story!
I have always remembered the verse that follows our text in 1 John 4.17. ‘Perfect love casts out fear’. At a wedding where I was best man, a pious absentee sent simply that biblical reference in a telegram. But without checking, I quickly turned to John 4.17 and read out: “Jesus said to her, ‘You are right in saying, 'I have no husband'; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband!’"
John urges us to believe in the evidence we see with our own eyes: our love for one another. He urges us to believe that we need have no fear. God is at work in us.
On the other hand he gives stark warning to those who would ignore the Christian’s primary mandate to love God and love others. There is no peace for the loveless heart. It is doomed to the turmoil of fear and distrust.
This first epistle of John is an open letter to the church, with a message very pertinent for our present age. It calls for Christian loyalty, love and understanding as we try to work out our faith in a changing world.
The gnostic deviations of the first century had led to various groups who seceded from the apostolic band. They often claimed that they loved God more than those they had left behind.
Although John admits debate on certain issues, he makes it clear that in one area, and one area alone, there is no room for compromise. There is nothing to debate. He writes:
“Those who say, "I love God," and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.” (vv 20f)It is the merciful who will know that God will be merciful to them. It is those who forgive who know that they are indeed forgiven. The example for us is the God ‘whose property it is always to show mercy.’ Or as John Donne put it in that Christmas Day sermon (1624):
God made Sun and Moon to distinguish seasons, and day and night, and we cannot have the fruits of the Earth but in their seasons; But God hath made no decree to distinguish the seasons of his mercies. In paradise the fruits were ripe, the first minute, and in heaven it is always Autumn, his mercies are ever in their maturity.In following Christ we were never promised by our Master an easy life, or a successful life. It is hard to live in charity and peace with all. But we were promised a full life of inner peace and unspeakable joy.
The opening lines of that Hugh Grant film of a couple of years ago, Love Actually, capture it well:
“General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed - but I don't see that - seems to me that love is everywhere.In that multitude of ordinary moments of everyday living, with all its messiness and uncertainty, still there is a quiet music in our soul that reminds us that we are loved, and that in loving we fulfil our highest destiny.
Igniting laughter, wreaking havoc, breaking hearts, daring commitments, forcing choices, catapulting spirits, forging inroads, creating risks - ecstatic, exciting, unexpected, unwelcome, inconvenient, inexplicable, inelegant, unequalled. Love, actually, is all around.”
And that is why this central act of Eucharist is an invitation to communion with God in the costly sacrifice of Christ, as well as a communion with each other.
Welcome Jesu,“God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.”
Deep in my soul forever stay;
Joy and love my heart are filling
On this glad Communion day.
1 John 4.16
