Love Because You Are Loved - 1 John 3:1-18

Big idea: We will never love God or people well until we see and soak in the staggering truth that God loved us first. His pre-emptive, resurrection-power love becomes the “why” behind every act of Christian love.

1 John 3:1 “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”

1 John 4:19 “We love because he first loved us.”

Why/How Does God Love Us First?

Ephesians 1:4–6 (NIV) ⁴ For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love ⁵ he predestined us for adoption to sonship  through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—⁶ to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

Ephesians 2:1–5 (NIV) Made Alive in Christ

2 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, ² in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. ³ All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh  and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. ⁴ But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵ made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.

Common Counterfeit “Whys”

• Earn it (legalism) – endless exhaustion.
• Ignore it (license) – dangerous apathy.
• Guilt / fear of punishment.
• Bargain for reward / karma.

True Motivation – Loved First

• Identity: we are God’s children, not our labels or résumé.
• Security: outside love heals inside emptiness.
• Capacity: His prior love overflows into love for others.

BBCC Verse of the Week: 1 John 3a (NIV) See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!

Study Notes

I remember the very first time I grasped something of God's call to speak directly into people's lives, rather than being general and theoretical. I was talking with a Christian man who was bothered by his indulgence in sexual fantasies. He was discouraged, oppressed by a low-grade sense of guilt. But he was not very motivated to grapple with the perversity of his thought life. With a shrug he said, "Of course, what can I expect? I'm in the flesh." I responded, "But you aren't in the flesh, you're in the Spirit!" He rocked back and his eyes opened wide, and he started to think hard. He got very serious. From that moment, the terrain on which his battles were being fought was redefined. I could easily have forgotten the truth myself, and vaguely sympathized, "Yeah, everyone struggles, but..." Or I could even have voiced the same truth one step removed toward abstraction, "It says in Romans 8:9 that 'you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.'" Or I could have said, "Do a Bible study of Romans 8 and Galatians 5:14-6:10 on the battle between the flesh and the Spirit." In fact, we did talk about those passages a few minutes later. But both the citation and the homework had been set up by the personal directness of challenge and encouragement. —David Powlison

The world is alienated from God, and God's love creates people who are his children and who then also become alienated from the world. Although the chapter division may lead readers to see this as the beginning of a new unit of discourse about the Father's love, it is organically connected to 2:29. John is still concerned with the topic of God's children living righteously, but he now brings love into discussion again. Because God is eternal, his children have eternal life. Because God is righteous, his children live righteously. Because God loves, his children must love (3:10). The hina clause ("that we should be called") is in apposition with "such love" (ποταπὴν ἀγάπην). It expresses the content of God's love, not its purpose. God's love for people is expressed in allowing us to become his children and in providing a way for that to happen through Jesus' death and resurrection, even though we have repeatedly rejected him and sinned against him. But because Christians have been born of God, they are no longer of the world. Their new nature originates not with the desires and impulses of the world, but with the righteousness of God. The world doesn't recognize this, because by John's definition the world is those who do not know God and, therefore, do not recognize his ways and his character. They are not of God. Therefore, they do not know those who have been born of God. —Karen Jobes

The principal reason for the praise is that "he [God] chose us" (ἐξελέξατο). This term was commonly used in the LXX for God's choice of individuals: He chose Abraham (Neh 9:7), Aaron (Ps 105:26 [104:26]), Moses (Sirach 45:4), David (1 Kings 11:34; Ps 78:70 [77:70]), and Eli's father (1 Sam 2:28). Most importantly, he chose Jacob/Israel (Isa 41:8; 44:1–2) to set his love upon him and his descendants (Deut 7:7; 10:15) and for Jacob to be his own special possession (14:2). The verb is also used to speak of God's choosing Christ. When God spoke from the cloud at the scene of the transfiguration, he said, "This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him" (Luke 9:35). The latter case, of course, does not mean that God has chosen Christ to experience redemption and the forgiveness of sins as is in view for the elect here, but that he chose Christ to fulfill a particular and indispensable role for securing salvation. —Clinton Arnold

For next week – Read 1 John 3:11-18                 Pastor Samuel Sutter //  sam@BBCCOnline.org

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