God Demonstrates His Love

1 John 4:7-10
Shay Fields Life Group
May 3, 2020

Introduction

A. This lady wanted evidence!

A young American engineer was sent to Ireland by his company to work in a new electronics
plant. It was a two-year assignment that he had accepted because it would enable him to
earn enough to marry his long-time girlfriend. She had a job near her home in Tennessee,
and their plan was to pool their resources and put a down payment on a house when he
returned. They corresponded often, but as the lonely weeks went by, she began expressing
doubts that he was being true to her, exposed as he was to comely Irish lasses.

The young engineer wrote back, declaring with some passion that he was paying absolutely
no attention to the local girls. "I admit," he wrote, "that sometimes I'm tempted. But I fight
it. I'm keeping myself for you."

In the next mail, the engineer received a package. It contained a note from his girl and a
harmonica. "I'm sending this to you," she wrote, "so you can learn to play it and have
something to take your mind off those girls."

The engineer replied, "Thanks for the harmonica. I'm practicing on it every night and
thinking of you."

At the end of his two-year stint, the engineer was transferred back to company
headquarters. He took the first plane to Tennessee to be reunited with his girl. Her whole
family was with her, but as he rushed forward to embrace her, she held up a restraining
hand and said sternly, "Just hold on there a minute, Billy Bob. Before any serious kissin' and
huggin' gets started here, let me hear you play that harmonica!"

B. John is going to give us two very important pieces of evidence for our spiritual well-being in
our passage this morning:

1. The evidence of God’s love in us (vv.7-8)

2. The evidence of God’s love for us (vv. 9-10)

Body

A. The evidence of God’s love in us (vv. 7-8)

God Demonstrates His Love
1 John 4:7-10
Shay Fields Life Group
May 3, 2020

1. “Beloved” – Used 6X in 1 John, 3X in chapter 4. Always before a profound summary

statement:
a. Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old
commandment that you had from the beginning (2:7)
b. Beloved, we are God's children now, (3:2)
c. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before
God; (3:21)
d. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they
are from God, (4:1)
e. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God (4:7)
f. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (4:11)
g. John is about to say to them – again – that they are beloved in part
because God Himself has shown His love for them.

2. The Apostle John himself was known as the “beloved disciple” (John 13:23), and so
he seems to have an deeper understanding of what it means to be “beloved.”

3. Loving other believers is the evidence of being “born of God” and “knowing God.”
a. This is the third time John has raised this point in 1 John:
1. 1 John 2:3-11
2. 1 John 3:14-15
3. 1 John 4:7-8
b. Maybe some of you remember the rule about the repetition of an idea
within a passage for emphasis.
c. This is an example of repetition within a whole book! Emphasis!
d. John wants to be sure that his audience understands that real Christians
show love for one another – to the point of looking out for each other’s
physical needs (1 John 3:17-18).
e. Illustration: I attached a long hose to a faucet to water a remote spot in the
back yard. When I turned on the faucet, guess what came out of the hose?
Water! And that’s what you’d expect! In the same way, after someone is
born again and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, we would expect God’s love to
come flowing through that person! What else would we expect?

4. Let’s say it another way: if you don’t love, you don’t know God (v. 8)
a. “God is love”: not “love is God”.
b. God is an independent, real being, not a feeling between two people who
“love” each other.
c. Ironically, Christians Scientists say exactly this, that love is God:

The Bible says that “God is love” (I John 4:16). God’s love is at the core of
God Demonstrates His Love
1 John 4:7-10
Shay Fields Life Group
May 3, 2020

Christian Science. Mary Baker Eddy wrote that “Divine Love is the
substance of Christian Science, the basis of its demonstration, yea, its
foundation and superstructure.” Those who practice Christian Science do
their best to live the bold, generous, and compassionate love that Christ
Jesus laid out in his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7). This is the heart
of its Christianity.

https://www.christianscience.com/what-is-christian-science/beliefs-and-
teachings

http://www.apologeticsindex.org/5574-christian-science

5. It is important to understand that at His very essence and nature and character, God
is love. And He shows us that love:

B. The evidence of God’s love for us (vv. 9-10)

1. God’s love was shown, displayed: “made manifest” (v. 9)

a. God’s love was shown, not just talked about. God says He loves us only
after He showed us that He loved us, in Jesus Christ!

2. God sent His “unique” Son: unique in every sense.

a. Some translations say “only begotten Son” (KJV), which leaves the
impression that Jesus was somehow the child of the God the Father.
b. Mormonism is an example: “Mormons believe that all men and women
ever to be born, including Jesus Christ, lived with God as His spirit children
before this life.” (https://uk.churchofjesuschrist.org/what-mormons-
believe-about-jesus-christ)
c. NIV is a good translation of v. 9: “his one and only Son”, emphasizes the
uniqueness of Jesus, not that He was somehow the spirit child of the
Father.

3. Purpose: so that we might live “through” Him.

4. Love is defined by what God did for us first: sent His Son.

5. “Propitiation”: satisfaction for the holy demands of the Law on our sin.
a. Used in 1 John 2x, then 1x in Romans and Hebrews.
b. 1 John 2:2: Jesus is the propitiation for the sins of the “whole world.”
c. Propitiation assumes:
God Demonstrates His Love
1 John 4:7-10
Shay Fields Life Group
May 3, 2020

1. That God needs to be propitiated or satisfied because of His

wrath/anger against sin. That’s both an OT and NT concept.
2. Jesus’ sacrifice was the full, complete, final, eternal payment that met
God’s righteous demands.
3. As a result, we are now secure in God’s love, for there is nothing else
we can do to further satisfy God’s demands.
4. Charles Ryrie says it this way:
If because of the death of Christ God is satisfied, then what can the
sinner do to try to satisfy God? The answer is nothing. Everything has
been done by God Himself. The sinner can and need only receive the
gift of righteousness God offers….This is the message that we bring to
a lost world: Receive the Savior who through His death satisfied the
wrath of God. (Basic Theology, p. 342)

Conclusion

A. What we do confirms who we are:

1. Gustave Dore: Gustave Dore was a prolific engraver, artist, illustrator, and sculptor,
working primarily as a wood and steel engraver. He produced over 100,000 sketches
in his lifetime, and lived to be 50 years old, averaging 6 sketches per day for each
day he lived. By the time he died he had also earned over $2 million, living a life of
affluence. Even though he was an untrained, self-taught artist, who never used a live
model, and who could not sketch from nature, his work is considered some of the
most important in the entire engraving art world.

2. The Illustration: The renowned artist Paul Gustave Dore (1821-1883) lost his
passport while traveling in Europe. When he came to a border crossing, he explained
his predicament to one of the guards. Giving his name to the official, Dore hoped he
would be recognized and allowed to pass. The guard, however, said that many
people attempted to cross the border by claiming to be persons they were not.

Dore insisted that he was the man he claimed to be. "All right," said the official,
"we'll give you a test, and if you pass it we'll allow you to go through." Handing him a
pencil and a sheet of paper, he told the artist to sketch several peasants standing
nearby. Dore did it so quickly and skillfully that the guard was convinced he was
indeed who he claimed to be. His work confirmed his word! 

B. Our love for other Christians confirms that we truly are born of God.

C. What God did confirms His love for us:

God Demonstrates His Love
1 John 4:7-10
Shay Fields Life Group
May 3, 2020

There is a story told of a cottage in a little country village, in which lived a family of four:
father, mother, and two small children.

One evening something happened, what, no one knows – and the little cottage caught on
fire. In a few seconds the thatched roof and wooden timbers were ablaze.

There was no fire engine in this remote spot, and the villagers stood round helpless. But
suddenly a young man, who had only recently come to the place, came striding up.

“What, can nothing be done to rescue the people inside?” he cried, and as no one
responded, he dashed through the flames. A moment later, he emerged bearing under each
arm a little child. They were unhurt, for Andy had hidden them under his coat – but he was
terrible burned.

Scarcely had he got out before the roof of the cottage fell in with a sickening crash, and the
parents of the children were never seen alive again,

A kind old woman took Andy into her home and nursed him carefully. Meanwhile, there
was much discussion in the village as to what was to become of the two rescued children.

It was decided that a council should meet to decide what was to become of them. When the
day of the decision arrived, there were two who claimed the little ones. The first was a
young nobleman of the village. He had money, position, and a home to offer the children.
The second one to claim the children was – Andy!

When asked what right he had to the little ones, he said never a word, but held up his hands
– burned and scarred for them.

D. God’s love for us is evidenced by the nail scars on the hands of Jesus.

Works consulted:

Ryrie, Charles C., Basic Theology, A Popular Systematic Guide to Understanding Biblical Truth,
Moody Press, Chicago, copyright 1999 Charles C. Ryrie.