God is Love
1 John 4:7-21
Psalm 86:1-8, 11-15
John 13:1-17, 31-38
God is Love
Did you know that Christianity is the only faith that can say that God is Love, but also that Love is at the centre and purpose of creation? Since Christianity believes in a Trinity - three persons in one God - somehow three personhoods are giving of themselves so completely that they are utterly one. The only way that is possible, is if God is an endlessly loving self-giving community. So, this loving God who created everything has made love the core of everything. Let's look at it another way. If we believed not in the Trinity, but in a singular personhood God, then Love would look very different - by necessity, it would ultimately be about the self - what I did for you would actually be about me. We have seen this kind of love and we know how faulty it can be. Even if we believe in a pantheon of gods it would ultimately be the same thing because one would have had to come first and one would have to be of greater power or significance, so Love could not come from a place without authority and priority. Again, we have seen the fault of such a love. If we didn't believe in a God then Love by necessity would have to be a product of the randomness of the universe. It would not be a core and essential element. It would more likely be a tool for our survival. Again, we have seen the fault of such a love. Our Trinity, three persons in one God, shows us the kind of love we need - the kind of love that is central and essential to a good life and world.
It is interesting, Greek has many words for love. The Bible uses only 4 of these words: Agape - self-sacrificial love, Philia- friendship love, Storge - familial love, and Eros - Romantic love - which does include elements of physical longing. Yet the bible never uses the Greek love words that mean hysteric love, self-love, dutiful love, or uncommitted love. Even with the New Testament's dozen writers, these words are never used. It is as if Jesus is presenting a true kind of love that doesn't include these loves, at least as we or the world sees them.
So we have begun to see what love is not. Trinitarian love is not primarily one based on the self, it is not one based on priority or authority, it is not one that is meant to be used for our own good. Trinitarian love is a love of continual mutual self-sacrifice. How else could three persons be one? In my limited understanding, it is only possible if each of those persons are so completely and absolutely giving themselves to the other that there is no more distinction between one or the other. Though in the case of the Trinity complete mutual giving has always been a part of their identity. Jesus tells us in John 14 that when we look on him we see the Father. Jesus is the fullness of God. He is the Father and yet he is different. Because Jesus gives himself wholly to the Father, when you are looking at Jesus you are seeing the greatest signpost for the Father. But the Father so fully gives himself to the Son that it is like that sign post actually becomes the thing it is pointing to. We shouldn't be surprised then when we hear Jesus say that the Son's glorification equates to the Father's glorification. And that the Father will respond by glorifying the Son even more, right away. They share so abundantly that it is like they continually outdo one another in this giving and generous love. Then there is the Holy Spirit that moves between them, around them, in them, and out of them, as the one who is that continual mutual self-sacrifice realized, lived out, and active in all things.
I hope you are beginning to see what an amazing God we have and how essential the Trinity is to everything. The Trinity is not a thing I can explain or understand completely, but God's three-in-one nature is something I and this world need and the more I dig in and understand the more I realize how rich, special, and Holy God is.
This means everything to us. It means everything to the world because it means that our creation, our lives are not some accident or plaything; we are purposefully, wonderfully, thoughtfully, and lovingly made as a product of that amazing continual self-sacrificial love between this community of three. Here, in the mystery of the Trinity, God solves many of humanity's mysteries. Why were we made? Because love by its nature desires to be shared, spread, and experienced. Not unlike how romantic self-sacrificial love often leads to wanting to have or adopt children. Another mystery. What is our purpose? To know God’s love. But then to know that love in such a way that it lives in us and out of us. This is why there is a primacy to loving God first with all that we are, because then and only then can love live in us so that we truly love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Our purpose is for loving self-sacrificial relationships - which of course would lead to the other aspects of love too.
The Trinity shows us a love so great, that they were willing to give it, knowing full well that many would decide to reject or be greedy about love. We see this in so many ways throughout Scripture. From the beginning, there was only one way to turn against God, and yet in that beautiful gift of a garden humanity took it. God warns Cain of danger, and yet Cain decides to let greed, jealousy and fear control his actions rather than love. This repeats itself again and again, all the way to Jesus on the cross. Jesus came to show God’s love for us, knowing the whole time that he was going to have to die because all of humanity had so fundamentally turned away from God, that they were not willing to accept him, receive his love or practice it. They came face to face with God’s love and they killed it. God knew this and willingly walked into it. Why? Because as he has always done, he has wanted to save us from our evil, from our rejection, from our broken understandings, perspectives, actions, and feelings, so that we could once again live in and experience His love. This is how we know what love is. Through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We know that love is not just a nice idea, it is not just kindness. Love is purposeful and self-sacrificial love that challenges people to change and become something particular so that they might seek and know God’s love too.
The Trinity’s love is so great that they wanted to invite more people in. Imagine it like a cup that runneth over. What’s the point of all that overflow unless it has something to hold it? Each person’s love for the other is so great that they are each filled to the brim and now they want to fill us too. They want to fill us with their love in such a way that we overflow and become more than our human nature could ever be. The Trinity wants us to experience their love in such a way that we could actually know that they, in their completeness live in us. The Trinity wants us to experience their love in such a way that we could actually know that we live in them. This is more than being a part of a family. This is more than being a part of a marriage. This is unity in a way we can barely understand and perceive - a unity ultimately founded in a continuous self-sacrificial love. We join their community by practicing that self-sacrificial love for them. This love is scary, but we can live out this self-sacrificial love for God because we know that He is already giving that love to us and will never stop.
When we know God’s love it should give us boldness, comfort, and purpose. As we heard in our passages today, perfect love casts out fear. What do we have to be afraid of if we have a powerful loving self-sacrificial community in God that we are being invited into? What is pain or death or isolation, or ridicule when we have something so grand and wonderful waiting for us at every corner? We should join the Trinity in that giving love so we too can invite others in. This love can be difficult because it requires us to sacrifice, to give of ourselves for others so that those others might see and know what God is already doing for them. At times it means kneeling and washing one another’s feet. At times it means being willing to have others wash our feet. At times it means calling out people on their betrayal and abandonment. At all times, it means loving like Jesus does so that we might become like our master. Love keeps people accountable, it acts sacrificially, and it receives. Marriage helped me understand this, but I think becoming a Father taught me even more. I correct Matteo and sometimes I let him cry. I am doing it out of love, to help him experience and live in the fullness of love. It’s not really for me, because most of the time I would rather give him what he wants, or stop him from crying. Sometimes I let him help me, knowing full well it will make things harder for me or take longer because I need to give him opportunities to express love. Sometimes, I need to give to him when I don’t seem to have anything left and I don’t see any way out. God’s love is particular and grand and beautiful and we are called to invite others into that love by expressing it without fear.
God is love. Here we must realize something difficult and fundamental. Love is a person. Love is not a feeling. It does not depend on how I like someone, if I am feeling good, or if I have energy. Love is way more than a feeling. Love is not a way of thinking. It does not depend on my knowing everything, or thinking rightly, or my ability to understand and process. Love is more than our thinking. Love is not an action. It does not depend on my ability or inability to act. It does not depend on where I am and who I am with. Love is more than an action. Love is a person. God is love. All of these other things will be areas that we grow in love and are naturally ways in which that love outpours and shows itself, but if we want to know love then we need to know the persons of God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. If we want love to live in us, then we need to invite God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to live in us. If we want to live out love then we need to think, speak, act, and feel for God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - only then can we live in and live out the self-sacrificial love which created and upholds the world.
Notes:
Love before time and creation
Love comes from God
Love born of God and knows God?
God is love
Hour of returning?
Loved them till the end - everything he did and was love
Love in the midst of betrayal and rejection - not despite it as he calls them on it
From the father and going to the Father- meant he could humbly serve and show love
Connecting Love means receiving (otherwise you have no part in me)
Love also means only taking what you need in the moment
Teacher (and Lord) washing your feet - showing you the way
His glorification is the Fathers and the Father responds with more
Love one another as I have loved you
By this people will know you are my disciples
