"Christians Are Perfect (In Love)"

            This Sunday, January 18th, I will continue a five-week proclamation series entitled, “What Makes the Christian Life Distinctive?”  Our focus this Sunday is the role that love plays within the Christian life.  In this series, we are exploring how being a Christian should make a real difference in the life each of us lives and the persons we become.  Consider love as an illustration.  Love is a key value within the Christian life of discipleship.  In John 15:12, Jesus says, “…love one another as I have loved you.”  So, Christians are called to love others.  Yet, loving others is not limited to just Christians.  Other persons from other religions—or, who have no religion at all—may adopt a philosophy of love for others.  So, what is it about Christian love that makes the Christian life distinctive?  That is our question this weekend.

            Our foundational scripture for this exploration is 1 John 4: 16-21.  In verses 19-20 of this passage, we learn the motivation for Christian love:  “We love because God first loved us.  Those who say, ‘I love  God,’ and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.” 

            For the “Elder,” who wrote 1 John, Christian love for others occurs in response to God’s deep and profound love for each of us.  Writing in The New Interpreter’s Bible, C. Clifton Black observes:  “Throughout 1 John the author has proved conspicuously reluctant to allow any concept of ‘vertical love’—God’s love for us or our love for God—to ride unbalanced without its ‘horizontal’ counterpart—our love for one another.”[i] 

For me, a helpful metaphor is a common water pitcher.  Imagine a water pitcher sitting in the kitchen sink, underneath the water tap.  When the water is turned on, it flows into the empty pitcher underneath the faucet.  As the water flows, the pitcher gradually fills with water until eventually the water reaches the brim and the pitcher is completely full.  As the water continues to pour from the faucet, the pitcher is now filled to overflowing.  Water begins spilling over the rim of the pitcher and cascades down its sides and into the sink. 

Similarly, for Christians, as we grow spiritually in our faith, we begin to appreciate how deep and wide and awesome God’s love for us really is.  Through spiritual growth, we begin to realize that God’s love is greater than we are.  God’s love literally fills us to overflowing, just as the water filling the pitcher in the metaphor.  As God’s love overflows, it spills out to our brothers and sisters.  God’s love pours down upon us vertically, overflowing, so that our love for others flows out horizontally.  We need to be clear that this love of others flows horizontally through spiritual maturity, as we gain a deeper and deeper appreciation for how much God loves us.

Of course, nonChristian persons of good will may also adopt and practice a philosophy of love for others.  But for these very admirable people, a philosophy to love one’s neighbor is a decision, generated from within, by conscious choice and lived out through a steely willpower.  I really admire such persons of good will because maintaining a life philosophy of love for others must require incredible determination and self-discipline.  By contrast, Christians’ commitment to a lifestyle of love is different—even though it, too, can be difficult.  As Christians mature spiritually and begin to comprehend the magnitude of God’s love for each of us, then our love for others becomes simply a gracious response to God’s love for us.  God’s love literally flows through us to those we touch.

In 1 John, the writer captures this point in verse 16, when he writes, simply:  “God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.”  This is a profound distinction within Christian life.  But, there is more.

The “elder” continues in verses 17-18:  “Love has been perfected among us in this:  that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world.  There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and who ever fears has not reached perfection in love.”  (my emphasis) 

What does it mean to become “perfect in love”? 

To be perfect in love does not mean that we become perfect individuals, without any flaws or shortcomings.  No.  Instead, to be perfect in love means that all of our words and actions are motivated out of a love for others.  That is, our intentions are always motivated by love for others.

Once again, nonChristians, may grow over time, so that all of their words and actions are motivated out of a love for others.  Yet, for the writer of 1 John, there was more to becoming “perfect in love” than simply acting out of a motivation of love.

1 John begins with these words:  “…the blood of Jesus, God’s Son cleanses us from all sin.  If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1: 7b-10)  Sinfulness, judgment, and justice form the backdrop for the writer’s reflections on love. 

Although he recognizes that all persons sin and fall short, no matter how hard we strive to be good persons, the “elder” believes that our sinfulness is literally washed away by God’s flooding, overflowing love for each of us.  Just as a power-washer can be used to wash all of the dirt and grime off the outside wall of a house, so also God’s love powerfully washes us clean from our sinfulness and heals us. 

As we mature spiritually in our faith, and as we become filled to overflowing with God’s love, then we become “perfect in love.”  That is, as God’s love grows within us, then we no longer fear judgment or punishment for all of our wrongdoing and shortcomings because we are confident that God’s love will wash us clean and heal us.  Out of this confidence that we are healed and reconciled through Jesus’ overflowing love, then we become “perfect in love” and the way in which we treat others is solely motivated by love for them--as a result of Jesus' love for us.

 

Come, join us this Sunday, as we explore what it means to be “perfect in love.”  Our church is located at the corner of Main and Dawson Streets in Meriden, Kansas.  Our classic worship service starts at 10 am on Sunday mornings. 

Everyone is welcome and accepted because God loves us all.

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[i] C. Clifton Black, The First, Second, and Third Letters of John:  Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections in The New Interpreter’s Bible, 12 volume series, 2003.