God Is Love
26 DECEMBER 2021 | TRADITIONAL SERVICE
Rev David Ho
Scripture Passage: 1 John 4:7-12 (NIV)
WATCH | SERMON (VIDEO)
READ | SERMON NOTES
Summary | There is a view of God that He knows everything we do and will reward or punish us according to our performance. While thankful for His blessings, we have a lingering fear that if we mess up, we face punishment or judgment. One consequence of such a view is that in challenging times, we wonder whether we have messed up and made God angry, and may run away instead of running to God.
God is love (1 Jn 4:8) is a profound description of God’s nature. It is different from saying that God is loving, as if it is one of His many activities like justice and mercy. Love is intrinsic to His nature, the essence of His being and is expressed through grace, wrath, ruling, justice, mercy, etc. Everything God does flows through His love. Love is God’s settled posture throughout creation. Human love is often a response to something favourable like beauty and success. God’s love is not based on our performance or qualities. He loves us because of who He is. God loves us perfectly and disciplines us for our good.
Here are three aspects of God’s love:
1. God’s love is Proactive
God loves us first before we love Him. Unlike other religions, God takes the initiative to reconcile with us. The pinnacle of His initiative is sending His only Son to hostile enemy territory, to seek and save us.
2. God’s love is Proven
God’s love is made manifest among us in His Son. While we were still sinners, God sent Jesus, a member of the Trinity who enjoys perfect harmonious relationship with His Father and the Holy Spirit, to our broken world to die a humiliating death on the Cross.
3. God’s love is Perfected in us
When we love one another, God’s love is perfected as it reaches its purpose and goal in our lives. God’s love transforms us, and overflows in us, to love others. The goal of God’s love is to remake us into His image as sin has distorted God’s image in us. God loves us too much to leave us as we are (Tim Keller).
The passage 1 Cor 13:3-7 describes how God’s love looks like – patient, kind, other-centred, anchored in truth, persevering. Such love defines Christian maturity and is impossible on our own strength. We need to come before God in all honesty and humility and surrender ourselves in total abandonment to Him.
God wants to change us deeply not just to avoid sin but transform us into His image. God’s love is fuel for transformation and central in discipleship. Otherwise, religion might just be a human enterprise to gain recognition and build our own kingdom.
The story of Christmas is the story of God’s love for us. May we know the Father’s love and bear witness to His love to the world.
(Sermon notes by Woo Choi Yin)
PONDER | REFLECTION QUESTIONS
1. How do you understand the statement, “God is love” (4:7)? What does it tell you about the intrinsic nature of God? How is it different from saying “God is loving” or “God is merciful”?
2. To what extent do you wrestle with the idea of a loving God with personal disappointments, and the suffering in the world? Share 1-2 areas that you struggle with most, and how do you cope with it.
3. God’s Love is Proactive: Read 1 John 4:10 and 19 and reflect on how God first loved us, even before we loved him. How does the fact that God is proactively seeking reconciliation with humanity affect the way you view and relate to God, especially in times when you can’t sense His presence?
4. God’s Love is Proven: Read 1 John 4:9 and 10. In what way has God proven His love for humanity? Read the Gospel of John (1:9-11). How did the world respond to the Son? How do these verses give you a greater appreciation of God’s sacrificial love, through the sending of His Son?
5. God’s Love is Perfected is us: Read 1 John 4:12. How do you understand the statement, “his love is perfected in us?” Read 1 Corinthians 13:1-7. What stands out for you? In what ways is God’s love not yet perfected in our lives?
6. Take time to reflect on any distractions, hurts and struggles that prevent you from experiencing God’s love in a deeper way? What spiritual disciplines (silence & solitude, worship, meditation of the Word, Examen etc.) could you cultivate to allow the Spirit to help you grow deeper in God’s love? What do you need to stop doing?