God Is Love 1 John 4:7-13, NIV Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 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. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! I would like to share the grace of God under the title, “God is love,” based on 1 John 4:7-13. Please repeat after me, “God is love. God is love.” Many people live with hurts and scars in their minds that cannot be erased. Unable to get rid of those scars, they often live with resentment, rage, and hatred throughout their lives. Such people cannot adapt or conform to the community. They sometimes end up committing cruel crimes or alarming others with their peculiar acts. How can we remove hurts and scars from our minds? We have to understand that such hurts come from a lack of love. Therefore, it is only love that can resolve this problem. You may remember the disastrous earthquake in Sichuan, China last year, killing a great number of people. On May 13, 2008, while the rescuers were trying to save people who were under the rubble, they found the body of a young lady. She was dead, kneeling on her knees. When the rescuers lifted up her body, they found a baby boy under her body, about three months old who was sleeping soundly. The mother had knelt down over her baby and put her hands on the ground to protect him. He was sound asleep when found, without any injuries. The mother’s cellular phone was placed next to the baby. On its screen there was a message. “My beloved baby, please remember how much your Mom loved you if you are saved.” A mother’s love is devotional and self-sacrificing. There is an even greater love, however, than a mother’s love. It is the love of God sending His one and only Son and letting Him die on the Cross for us? sinners?who were destined to live hopelessly due to our sins and transgressions. The true love of God can resolve all problems of humankind. John, the apostle of love, described the love of God in great detail in 1 John. He declared that God is love. 1. God is love (1Jn 4:8). First, I want to emphasize that “God is love.” 1 John 4:8 says, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” God is the source of love. Love comes from God. Our God is the God of love, graciousness, mercy, and endless compassion. Only the love of God can resolve the problems in the world and heal all our hurts. When we dwell in the love of God, God dwells in us as well. 1 John 4:16 says, “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.” Hallelujah! Moreover, when we keep His Word, we can dwell in the love of God. John 15:10 says, “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love.” If we obey the commands of the Lord, we will remain in the love of the Lord. Saint Augustine once said, “Only love distinguishes the children of God from the children of the devil.” This is true. The children of God always remain in the love of the Lord. On the other hand, however, the children of the devil live pessimistically with hatred, complaining, and grumbling. Therefore, we must become apostles of love, and we must lead the children of the devil to the Lord. We must love God, who is the source of love, with all our hearts and with all our souls and with all our minds. This is the greatest commandment. In Matthew 22:37, Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Hallelujah! When we love God with all our hearts, with all our souls, and with all our minds, God will pour His blessings upon us. Matthew 6:33 says, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” All these things will be given to you as well! Therefore, we must fervently love our God, the source of love, throughout our lives. 2. God’s love toward us (1Jn 4:10). Second, we must think about the love of God toward us. In 1 John 4:10, the apostle John says, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” It is not that we loved God first, but that God loved us first unconditionally and one-sidedly. 1 John 4:19 says, “We love because he first loved us.” He first loved us. This wonderful love, agape love, changes us and heals us. Paul Azinger is an American professional golfer. He won a major title at the 1993 PGA Championship tournament. With great joy, he lifted his trophy high in the air during the ceremony and felt tearing pain in his right shoulder. He went to the hospital and was subsequently diagnosed with cancer. It seemed impossible for him to fully recover. His doctor said he would not be able to play golf any more. Azinger felt hopeless. He used to put all his hopes and dream in playing golf, but his dreams were about to be shattered. Since he was a Christian, however, he did not give up hope. He knelt down before God and prayed, “Lord, have mercy on me. Help me!” The peace of the Lord flooded overflowed in his heart. He believed that God sent Jesus Christ to earth to heal him from his disease. He was confident that the endless love of God would heal him. He overcame his fear and hopelessness by praying to God. He played golf again and overcame his cancer. Azinger said, “God never told me what was going to happen. I was confident about the fact that God would love and protect me no matter what would happen. Two years after being diagnosed with cancer, there is no cancer cell in my body. We must know that God loves us and stays with us no matter how hard our lives get or no matter what kind of trouble we may face. We must let this be known to other people.” This is true. God stays with us, helping, protecting, and guiding us with His unchanging love?even when we are deeply dismayed. His wonderful love and grace will never leave us throughout our lives. Azinger overcame his cancer and won the tournament at the Sony Open in Hawaii in 2000. The love of God healed him. The same love of God is healing us now. It heals the diseases in our minds and bodies. The love of God is unconditional, and He gives it freely. Although we do not deserve His love, the Lord loves us. We call this kind of love agape. Even though we are sinners, committing sins and transgressions all the time, and even though we deserve to be forsaken, God loved us first. His love has sustained us and brought us here today. There are 116 phrases in the Bible in which agape appears. This agape love has saved us. God has shown this love to us through Jesus Christ. 1 John 4:9 says, “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.” Let us read John 3:16 together, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Amen. The agape love of Jesus Christ, the sacrificing love of the Lord, and His sacrificial death on the Cross has saved all humankind. We cannot repay Him for His wonderful love. We have become the children of God, thanks to His grace. A Korean spiritual song has the following lyrics, “The infinite grace that we cannot repay wraps around my life.” Hallelujah! The grace and love of God wraps around us. We cannot thank Him enough! The infinite grace of the Lord for which we cannot repay, is with us and upon us, wrapping around our lives. We live by this grace and love. Without the love of the Lord, we cannot sustain our lives for even a single hour. We need His love every minute and every second. The Lord will be with us with His infinite love and grace throughout our lives! There was a man running a business in Kuro-Dong, Seoul. His business was failing so badly that he finally lost it and was left heavily in debt. He decided to commit suicide. He arranged all his property and told his wife and children to go to their relative’s house. He was on his way to Busan to kill himself. If he died in Seoul, his family would know it too soon, so he chose Busan as the place of suicide. When we feel like ending our lives, we should not put it into action immediately. We must go far away, very far away. On his way to Busan, he happened to pass by a town called Flower Village. He went into town and encountered a lady there. She was completely paralyzed from her neck down. With a bright and big smile, she greeted him, saying, “I am happy since I can talk freely, see, hear, and eat. I give thanks for the love of God every day.” Hallelujah! The man who was on his way to kill himself was deeply impressed. He had strong legs and arms, driving his car to kill himself. On the other hand, that lady could not move her body from her neck down. The only thing that she could freely do was to talk, only able to move her head and neck. However, she was giving thanks to God. There, he experienced the love of God and turned around and went back to Seoul instead of going to Busan. Instead of killing himself, he restarted his business. Let us give glory to God. The love of God in the heart of the paralyzed lady changed the heart of the man who was going to commit suicide. We can more than sufficiently overcome any hopelessness, sadness, or the pain of death?if we have the love of God. The love of God had planted a dream and hope in the heart of the lady. Let us not look at what we do not have but look at what we have, feeling joyous and thankful, and praise the Lord. The love of God is so great that we cannot repay it. I pray that you will be overwhelmed by this enormous and wonderful love of God and live for His glory. 3. Practice love (1Jn 4:11). Third, now that we have experienced the love of God, we need to practice it. Please repeat after me, “Practice love. Practice love.” 1 John 4:11 says, “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” As debtors of a huge debt that we cannot repay, and as precious children of God, we need to practice love. We need to love our neighbors as ourselves. The Lord says in Matthew 22:39, “And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Apostle John says in 1 John 4:20-21, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.” How can we say that we love God if we do not love our brother, whom we have seen? In this Scripture verse, a brother means a Christian. So, if Christians do not love one another, how can we proclaim the love of the Lord to nonbelievers? How can we boldly say that we love God? As beloved children of God, we must love one another. We are bound together by the love of God, dedicating ourselves to the church of the Lord, and spreading and sharing the grace of the Lord with all the peoples on earth. We must be actively involved in the movement of practicing love through the “Sharing Love and Happiness Foundation”. We need to support this foundation so that God will wonderfully work through our dedication. We should never forget that Jesus also died on the Cross for the sick and the outcast as well as for us. The Lord Jesus has given us a new command. John 13:34-35 says, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” We must practice love, keeping the command of the Lord Jesus. We should not fight or hate each other. We should not be divided. We need to be united, practicing love together. Then the power of darkness, fear, or problems will depart from us and the blessing of the Lord will overflow in our lives. 1 John 3:18 says, “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” Love requires action and practice. If we say “I love you,” without moving a finger for those we say we love but having hatred in our hearts, we are hypocrites. We need to take care of those who are neglected and poor. We also have to understand and forgive those who have hurt us. Let us not live as a narrow-minded Christian, but have a mind as broad as an ocean to forgive, understand, help, and share with other people. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 speaks about true love. Let us read it together. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” Amen. Let us be apostles of love, practicing the love of God in our daily lives. There is a story about two Catholic nuns, Sister Marianne Stoeger and Sister Margreth Pissarek, from Austria. They graduated from Nursing School in Austria and learned that volunteer nurses were needed in Sorok-Do Hospital, Korea. They came to Korea in 1962 and 1966, respectively. Back then, Sorok-Do was an island for lepers. People did not care about lepers. No one would take care of them with love. However, these two foreign sisters came to Korea with the love of Christ. For more than forty years, they took care of patients with the love of the Lord. They did not even wear gloves when they applied medicine to the patients, because it needed to be done meticulously, even though the patients asked them not to. In the afternoons, they would make soup or cookies and took them to the patients. They were in their twenties when they came to Korea, but after so many years, they are now in their seventies. They did not want other people to know about their volunteer work. They did not want to make a name for themselves but wanted to be friends of lepers, taking care of them with the love of the Lord. They refused to have press interviews. The Austrian government wanted to commend their devotion by giving awards to them, but they refused to accept them. The Austrian Ambassador to Korea had to go to Sorok-Do and hand the awards to them. The hospital wanted to celebrate their sixtieth birthdays, but they refused, and went somewhere else to pray. The government pays about $100 a month for the meals of long-term volunteers, but they refused to take it. Since they could not serve the patients anymore if they refused to take this meal money, they finally took it. However, they added their money from Austria freely to it and provided snacks and milk for the patients. They also provided bus fare for those who left the island after being cured. When they left Sorok-Do, they took only their old luggage that they had brought to the island with them. They served the patients 10 years past their retirement age. They left the island on November 22, 2005 for Austria after 43 years of service. They left a letter to the residents and patients of the island. The letter said, “We are leaving a letter of thanks for giving foreigners a chance to serve you and for loving us. It has changed a lot since we came here, and you now have a much better social security system and better medicine. Now that there are nurses in the hospital to take care of you, it will go well even without us. If we stayed here, we might be a burden to you, so we decided to leave now.” After they left, overwhelmed by their love, the residents and patients of Sorok-Do gathered and worshipped God with prayer and thanksgiving for more than ten days. The love of these two Catholic sisters is a perfect example of agape love, comforting and taking care of the hurt and deserted for almost half a century on a lonely island. Their love is true dedication, which we cannot find anywhere else other than in the discipleship of the Lord Jesus. I pray that you will practice the love of God like these sisters. May the Lord help us to share the love and grace that we have received from Him. Love becomes greater when it is shared. It will be given back to us in greater grace. Since we were born empty-handed, we will die empty-handed, too. Therefore, as children of God, when we receive God’s blessing by His grace, we must share it with others. A few years ago, a homeless man froze to death in Manhattan, New York City. After he was found dead, the police opened his sleeping bag which he had always carried. What was surprising was that he had a lot of money in the sleeping bag. There were dollar bills, five-dollar bills, ten-dollar bills, and twenty-dollar bills. He had a total of fifty thousand dollars. He could have used $100 of it and checked into a hotel room, bathing and eating as much as he wanted. Instead, he died on the street on a cold night, without ever being able to spend his money. What a pity! He was sitting on a huge amount of money but never spent it, probably saying, “It is my money. Mine.” The tithe from the money would be $5,000. He could have spent the money for a good cause. However, he froze to death, never having a chance to spend it, and was wandering around on the streets as a homeless person. I felt really sorry for him. I urge you to share your blessing with others when God blesses you. I pray that you will be enormously blessed to share it with others, to help others for the glory of God, and to expand the kingdom of heaven on earth. 4. The help of the Holy Spirit (1Jn 4:13). To be able to practice love, we need the help of the Holy Spirit. Fourth, I want to speak about the help of the Holy Spirit. 1 John 4:13 says, “We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.” When we believe in Jesus Christ?the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God comes into our hearts, helping us to live in accordance with God’s will and to practice the love of the Lord. The Holy Spirit pours His power upon us so that we may obey and practice the Word of the Lord. 1 John 3:24 says, “Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.” The Holy Spirit comes into our hearts so that we may have the power to share the love of the Lord. Even when we are weak, hurt, disappointed, or frustrated, the Spirit pours His wonderful grace upon us, interceding for us with groans that words cannot express. Romans 8:26 says, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.” The Holy Spirit helps us. The Spirit is with us. The Spirit helps us to be freed from the snares of sin and death. Romans 8:1-2 says, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.” Hallelujah! Moreover, the Holy Spirit gives us the power to proclaim the Lord Jesus all over the world. 1 John 5:6 says, “This is the one who came by water and blood?Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.” Acts 1:8 says, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When the Holy Spirit comes upon us, we will receive power?the power to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. We need to pray, “May the Holy Spirit come upon us. Help us to practice the love of Christ as debtors of love. Help us take the love of the Lord to the ends of the earth, living as witnesses of the Gospel. Lord, come to us and transform us into people of the Spirit and love so that we may dedicate our lives for the glory of God.” I pray that you will experience the overflowing grace of the Lord. This is my earnest prayer for you. Let us pray. Our Father of infinite love, grace, and mercy, we give thanks to You for Your love and grace. Why should You love us so much that You sent the Lord Jesus to earth to die for us on the Cross and to open the way to salvation for us? We thank You for the free gift of salvation. Now that we are heavily in debt because of Your love, help us practice Your love. Pour Your grace upon us so that we may practice the love of the Lord Jesus to the outcast, to the deserted, and to those who are in trouble. Giving thanks to You, I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.