Love That Reveals God

     Love is a major theme in Christianity. It is the primary force that drove God to send His son to earth. It is foundational to our relationship with one another and with God in the Christian community. Yes, but that's the rub isn't it. We as Christians find sometimes it is difficult to 'get along" with one another. Even though the second commandment is to love as we love ourselves. But Christians continue to have problems being one. We know we should love and that it is an integral part of our participation in God's community now and in the eschaton. An old saying reminds me of the problem."The kingdom of Heaven would be great if it weren't for the people."
       The people of God are put together to manifest this love. And it is in this love that we come to know one another but more importantly we come to know God. This is what John has said in his letter, "God is love".
     My text is found in 1 John 4: 7-12. I am reading from the New American Standard Version. In this text John uses the word "love" 14 times in six verses. It is the word, "agape", which is considered by many to the be the expression of God's selfless love.

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
9 By this the love of God is revealed among us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.
10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the atonement for our sins.
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
12 No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. 
"God abides in us and His love is perfected among us. "
     How is God's love perfected among us?  I am not talking about  the love we have for God individually in our hearts, which God does perfect, but more the love we have between us, in our fellowship, in the community of believers. The love we share as believers. This Love that John is describing is communal in nature. "Beloved, let us love one another." The Expository Bible says "The vocative “dear friends” (lit., “beloved”) and the subjunctive force of the verb, "let us love" (Ἀγαπητοί, ἀγαπῶμεν ἀλλήλους) makes clear that the author is speaking primarily to the community itself." (side note: These three words form an Alliteration.)
    It is this love that is expressed toward our Christian family and toward one another.  God's love is found at the intersection "between members" of our fellowship not just in our hearts and minds. This is the love that needs perfecting. This focus takes from the observation and consideration of love in our minds first. It challenges the notion of the Enlightenment that the mind is judge of all things including love. The epistemology of God, love and being is moved to where the expression of the community of believers is loving. It is moved outside the individual.  John puts it this way "loving one another" is the incident and evidence of "knowing God and being "born of God".  Love is expressed and understood in this intersection and so is God!  Why? John says simply, "God is Love".
      God's love needs expression. Love needs an object to be expressed towards to be real and understood. Our expressions of love for one another should reveal God. And in revealing God we participate with Him in his love. It cannot be fulfilled or perfected in our hearts alone. We need to participate with God and our community. Loving one another with God in our community is the act and fulfillment of the expressed and incarnated God.
          How many have been to a baby dedication? I love those. Recently we had a baby dedicated to the Lord. She had been through a tough birth and the whole fellowship had been praying for her and her parents. That Sunday morning the parents brought the baby and she was all dressed up in a cute dress with one of those cute ribbons or bands around her head. And when the pastor held up the baby to the congregation, you could just feel the love rippling across the assembly. Everyone there instantly feel in love. Little kids coloring and squirming stopped and gazed, the old folks bent forward for a better look, young married couples with their arms around each other squeezed one another. Everyone, for those precious moments had their eyes fixed on the baby and they were loving her and they were so glad to see her. According to John and our text - This was a moment of "knowing" God. It was a wonderful moment where everyone seemed to be open and experiencing the love of God. It was this body, this community of believers that were expressing His love. This was God being known "among us". And in a strange way John tells us that it is at that moment that the evidence is shown of our being born of God too. That morning we were saying as a community we are born of God and know God.
         And so this is what I think John is talking about here in verse seven of our text.
7. Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; and everyone who loves is born God and knows God.
TO BE CONTINUED