Sermon: God’s Transforming Love
Scripture: I John 4:7-12
When we first started our journey in I John, we made some observations about the false teachers causing trouble in the church. The five main arguments John is combating are as follows…
1. Jesus did not come in the flesh.
2. Sin does not matter or even exist.
3. A downplay of love as the ruling principle of life.
4. The treatment of others is not a sign of your relationship with God.
5. The false teachers claimed to have an insider track on the knowledge and will of God.
John addresses the first four false claims in our passage.
1. Jesus is a fully divine person God sent to rescue creation and bring actual life to the present.
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 – 1 John 4:9
Snapping us away from death…” Jesus makes us alive, puts eternity in our hearts, and then commissions us to live this same love in our context.” C. Kruse
2. Sin corrupts and destroys. This is why Jesus was sent: to break the power of death in humanity.
In verse 9, John says because God loved us, Jesus was sent. Why was he sent? “That we might live” points to a quality of life where eternity is placed in us now. Jesus is a healing presence in your life. Where sin breaks, Jesus restores.
3. Love IS the ruling principle with a follower and apprentice of Jesus.
For a person who claims a new life in God, a habitual life of love towards others is the standard of behavior. The love we show others is foundational evidence that the transforming love of God is active in our lives.
4. Treatment of others IS a marker that God is allowed to be in your life AND that he is allowed to lead you.
Note verses 11-12. John says if God is active in your life, “you’ve seen God.” Meaning that by our actions, the circle and aim of love is made complete in those who use their lives as a conduit of God’s love. An excellent argument for the existence of God is the transformed life and love of believers.
The following quote puts a bow this the scriptural gift…
Our faith is not a matter of hearing what Christ said long ago and trying to carry it out. Instead, the natural son of God is at your side. He is beginning to turn you into the same kind of thing as himself. He is beginning, so to speak, to inject his kind of life and thought into you, beginning to turn the tin soldier into a live man. The part of you that does not like it is the part that is still tin – C.S. Lewis.
Scripture: I John 4:7-12
When we first started our journey in I John, we made some observations about the false teachers causing trouble in the church. The five main arguments John is combating are as follows…
1. Jesus did not come in the flesh.
2. Sin does not matter or even exist.
3. A downplay of love as the ruling principle of life.
4. The treatment of others is not a sign of your relationship with God.
5. The false teachers claimed to have an insider track on the knowledge and will of God.
John addresses the first four false claims in our passage.
1. Jesus is a fully divine person God sent to rescue creation and bring actual life to the present.
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 – 1 John 4:9
Snapping us away from death…” Jesus makes us alive, puts eternity in our hearts, and then commissions us to live this same love in our context.” C. Kruse
2. Sin corrupts and destroys. This is why Jesus was sent: to break the power of death in humanity.
In verse 9, John says because God loved us, Jesus was sent. Why was he sent? “That we might live” points to a quality of life where eternity is placed in us now. Jesus is a healing presence in your life. Where sin breaks, Jesus restores.
3. Love IS the ruling principle with a follower and apprentice of Jesus.
For a person who claims a new life in God, a habitual life of love towards others is the standard of behavior. The love we show others is foundational evidence that the transforming love of God is active in our lives.
4. Treatment of others IS a marker that God is allowed to be in your life AND that he is allowed to lead you.
Note verses 11-12. John says if God is active in your life, “you’ve seen God.” Meaning that by our actions, the circle and aim of love is made complete in those who use their lives as a conduit of God’s love. An excellent argument for the existence of God is the transformed life and love of believers.
The following quote puts a bow this the scriptural gift…
Our faith is not a matter of hearing what Christ said long ago and trying to carry it out. Instead, the natural son of God is at your side. He is beginning to turn you into the same kind of thing as himself. He is beginning, so to speak, to inject his kind of life and thought into you, beginning to turn the tin soldier into a live man. The part of you that does not like it is the part that is still tin – C.S. Lewis.