God's love life
What is a human's basic need? Can a person live without love? What happens when a person is not loved? What is the cause of lovelessness? These questions are answered in this sermon entitled: Living God's Love!
I would like to emphasize that a credible and trustworthy life is not possible without love. In love we find true life. The origin of love can be found in the Trinity of God. Before the beginning of time, in eternity, which was long before the creation of time by the Word of God, the Word existed with God. God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are the source of love, one being in three persons who stand in a perfect, divine relationship with one another. In this unity, God lived in absolute harmony, and love is not only his essence but also his way of life.
When we talk about relationships in the New Testament, we are talking about God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. Although no one can see the Father, people saw Jesus during his lifetime. Jesus was the expression of God's love, which is so great that he sacrificed his life for people on the cross. Jesus showed us practical love in his relationship in obedience to his Father and in mercy to us humans. We find a summary of this truth in:
1. Johannes 4,7-10 “Beloved, 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, so 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.”
We cannot know God, who he is and what he is like, until we have known him by his grace. To know the true God we need the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit is present in us, we live in the divine nature. Otherwise, like Adam, we would continue to live according to human fleshly nature. Such a life is marked by sin and limited. It is a life marked by death. This is a very significant difference for our humanity. He shows us whether we really live and do so in divine love, in his nature or whether we are fooling ourselves into something that is not true. The Apostle Paul speaks about this in:
Römer 8,8-11 “Those who are carnal, that is, who live according to human nature, cannot please God. But you are not carnal, but spiritual (since your rebirth, since your baptism), because God’s Spirit dwells in you. Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, then although your body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”
These verses make it clear that the unity, the love of the triune God must live in us in order for us to say that we are truly alive. If we live in the unity of love, in community with God, we correspond to the theme addressed in this sermon: living God's love!
The condition of love
Love is at the heart of the fruit of the Spirit as described in Corinthians. Without love, without God, I would be like sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. If I knew all the secrets and had a strong faith to move mountains, but didn't have love, I would be nothing. This is also Paul’s insight:
1. Korinther 13,4-8 “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”
These haunting words are confirmed in the final sentence:
1. Korinther 13,13 «But now faith, hope, love, these three remain; but love is the greatest among them"
It highlights the paramount importance of love, which goes beyond faith and hope. To live in God's love, we adhere to God's Word:
1. Johannes 4,16-21 “And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us: God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. In this way love is perfected among us, so that we may have freedom to speak 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 whoever fears has not been perfected in love. Let us love one another, for he first loved us. If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God must also love his brother.”
God is the loving God even without us humans. If we behave ungodly, i.e. loveless and merciless, God still remains faithful to us. The expression of his way of life is to love all people. Jesus gave us an example with his life so that we could follow in his footsteps and do what he expected of us. We are called upon to love our neighbors; this is not an opportunity to decide for ourselves whether we want to do this on our own, but rather a decisive condition. Jesus says in:
Markus 12,29-31 “The greatest commandment is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Our expression of love includes all God-given gifts, talents and abilities. With these we should work, serve and bear much fruit. We are lifelong apprentices in God’s work. Thanks to his love, Jesus makes things possible in our lives that we cannot achieve on our own. Become aware again and again and allow the following words to penetrate your soft heart.
Matthäus 25,40 “Truly I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.”
God's love life
So it's about living in God's love. I used to be a successful restaurateur and enjoyed serving many nice guests together with my wife and the staff. This comprehensive service brought us merit, much joy and beautiful relationships. When we decided to walk our life's path in an intimate, heart-changing relationship with God, we left the restaurant industry and with it many comforts and difficulties. I found a new field of activity in the field sales of a wine and spirits company. Over the next 25 years, I experienced ups and downs, knowing that greater trials are often accompanied by divine blessings. That's how I experienced these years. I went the proverbial extra mile at work. I have prayed and held late-night conversations with terminally ill clients to practice charity and serve in this way. I was prepared to endure, to listen, to take action wherever there was a need for the man or woman. It was a time to give appreciation.
Did all this effort and tireless commitment bring me anything? God's blessing accompanied me on this journey of life that I am grateful from the bottom of my heart. Our marriage relationship and relationship with Jesus, the head of the church, has grown fruitfully. Can this be an encouragement for you to use your abilities and possibilities to let God's love live through you?
I am convinced that there are experiences in your life that encourage each other. Are you ready to pray for brothers and sisters and people in the world? Do you want them to receive and accept God's Word through the Holy Spirit with an open heart? Will you support them so that they too can live in a warm relationship with Jesus and his Father - in love? Would you like to be an ambassador of Jesus Christ, called to proclaim the good news using your personal skills in everyday life? We find an answer in Ephesians that summarizes what we have discussed.
Epheser 2,4-10 “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our sins, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
Years ago, we leaders of the WKG Switzerland were invited to take part in a seminar in Worms with other European leaders. I asked one of my friends: Are you coming too? He answered: What good is this to me! I replied: You are not asking the right question. It would be correct to ask: What can I bring with me? This immediately made sense to him and he came along. What God had already prepared came to light. It was a valuable, instructive and fun-loving meeting for us. We were able to make our contribution. Listen, offer encouragement and understanding and offer valuable support that continues to bear good fruit today.
Jesus said: Whoever sees me sees the Father! So that it doesn't get too theoretical, let's take a practical example, the moon. For me, the moon is the most beautiful example of the image of God. The moon is the visible expression of an invisible source of light. Because the sun sets in the evening, it becomes invisible to us. During darkness, the moon reflects sunlight. What does the moon do? He doesn't do anything. By doing nothing, he enjoys the sun and reflects its light. The moon is an image and reflects the light of the sun. When a Christian says, I am very successful, I radiate God's love, I think he is living in a lunar eclipse. A moon that sees itself shining does not see the sun. Jesus says in:
Johannes 8,12 "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
Jesus shines on us humans with his bright light. We have received from him the light and the task to reflect his light in the world that is in trouble. This is a noble task and means: living love! How does this help me? It's in
Matthäus 5,16 “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”
I summarize this sermon. We follow Jesus' example and open our hearts and thank him for his divine blessing. By reflecting His light onto those around us, we fill life with love.
Let's ask ourselves the questions again:
- What is a human's basic need? Love.
- Can a person live without love? No, because without love, without God, man is dead.
- What happens when a person is not loved? Man is wasting away because he has a life-threatening lack of love.
- What is the cause of lovelessness? The deadly sin.
- God alone can help us in every deadly situation if we let ourselves be helped, because he is love.
Living God's love is the content of our lives. If we love, we honor the triune God and serve our neighbors with the love that he has given us. Amen.
by Toni Püntener
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