Love is Action, Part Two

1 John 3:11-24

On July 20, 2006 in Sterling Heights, Michigan, Petter Mattic’s car careened off of the road and into a retention pond. The car began to submerge in fifteen feet of water. At the same time, 18 year old Obed Petties was driving home from his job as a construction worker, with two of his co-workers. They stopped their van and dove into the retention pond to help the now unconscious driver. As they were swimming to the car, one of them yelled to Petties to get a hammer. He returned to the van, got a hammer and began to swim back toward the sinking car. Before reaching it, he submerged and did not re-appear. Mattic was removed from the car by the other rescuers and then was towed to the bank. He was hospitalized for testing. The coworkers re-entered the pond to search for Petties, but they were unsuccessful. His body was recovered about two hours later; he had drowned. He died attempting to help save Petter Mattic from drowning. On May 3 of this year, on behalf of their son, his family was awarded the Carnegie Medal for extraordinary civilian heroism.

Mr. Petties laid down his own life to save another. 1 John 3:16 says, This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. Mr. Petties did not die for his faith, but he did give his life for a person in need. Many people have made this supreme sacrifice. Millions have been martyred, millions more have given their lives for their countries, their families and their freedom. To give your life for another is truly the ultimate sacrifice, the supreme act of love, and for this reason, many people have expressed their love to one another in these terms. For example, any good parent knows that they would give their own lives to save the lives of their children. If a husband would not die for his wife, could we say that he genuinely loves her? Countless people have said to another person, “I love you so much that I would die for you.” I am glad this is true and I hope it is true in your life, but is this what John meant when he wrote verse sixteen? Since Christ laid down his life for us, we ought to be willing to die for others? That love is defined as a willingness to die to save someone? I believe we ought to be willing to do what Mr. Petties did, but John did not mean that we should merely be willing to die for someone. Let me give you three reasons why this cannot be what John intended.

The first reason this is not what he meant is because very few people actually do lay down their lives for another. The chances that anyone in this room would actually have to die for another person is so small as to be statistically insignificant. It just isn’t going to happen. The second reason John meant more than just the willingness to give our lives for others is the fact that Jesus actually did give his life. Jesus Christ laid down his life for us, and as we said last week, his death actually accomplished something. His death and resurrection and the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit has caused us to pass from life to death. But the bottom line is that Jesus did not say, “I love you so much I am willing to die for you,” but he did say, “I love you so much that I have come so that I can die for you and take away your sins.” And he did! Jesus’ willingness to give his life was not just potential, it was actual. It was not mere words but it was action. Neither can our laying down of our lives be mere words, but must be action. It’s not something that we say but it must be something that we do.

So am I suggesting that we are to seek out martyrdom so that we can die for our brothers? Am I saying that we should hang out near a lake where someone might careen their car into the lake so that we can dive in and give our lives for them?  No, the answer is at one time much more simple than that but also much more difficult.

But I also know this isn’t what John meant because in the very next verse he defined precisely what he did mean. In verse seventeen he wrote, If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Verse seventeen explains verse sixteen. This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. How do we lay down our lives for our brothers? Not that we love them so much we are willing to die for them and not even that we actually die for them, but that we spend our lives for them. And we spend our lives in the manner of verse seventeen. If you have enough food to eat and your brother does not, we are to give them some of our food. We are to share our material possessions with the person who does not have enough. At one level this is more simple than dying as a martyr, isn’t it? God does not require that we actually die for another person, because unlike Jesus’ death, our death would not really accomplish anything. We cannot take away another’s sins. We cannot die as a substitute for anyone else. We are not commanded to die for another person. But that does not let us off the hook! We are not commanded to give our lives for others but rather to spend our lives for others.

I think that the true understanding of this principle is actually more difficult than a simple martyrdom, because instead of dying once, we have to die to ourselves over and over again. To spend our lives on someone means that we empty our pockets and give to others in need. It means that we must act in hundreds of small ways over an over again all throughout our lives, and this is a messy, difficult business. Let me try to explain these two kinds of love with an illustration from Lord of the Rings. The martyrdom kind of love is demonstrated powerfully by Aragorn, particularly near the end of the trilogy. If you recall, Aragorn and his small army marched to engage the enemy outside the Black Gate. Before long, they were outnumbered at least twenty to one and were completely surrounded by the bloodthirsty Urukai. From the very beginning, the whole mission was a suicide mission, but right then they were facing certain death. But at their worst moment, Aragorn looked at his troops and said two words to them, “For Frodo.” Then he turned around and ran toward the massive enemy to fight to the death. This kind of love was a martyrdom kind of love. Aragorn was giving his actual life to save Frodo’s. Now compare this kind of sacrificial love to that of Sam. The faithful friend Sam walked beside Frodo for many months and countless miles. Every day he helped Frodo to find food. Every day he protected Frodo from various enemies. Every day he encouraged Frodo to keep going, to take just a few more steps, even when all seemed hopeless. Sam sacrificed himself hundreds of times in small and large ways to show love to his friend. In this way, Sam laid down his life for Frodo. He spent his life in love for Frodo.

This is the kind of love that John is talking about—a messy, daily, dirty, sacrificial kind of love where we die to ourselves a thousand times over and spend our lives in sacrificial acts of love for others. We do not lay down our lives only one time but we are called to lay down our lives thousands of times. It’s the kind of love where I have to look around me to see if there are any brothers who have material needs that I can help to meet. John summarizes this love in verse eighteen. Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. It’s not that we stop using words to declare our love. We still preach the good news of the gospel and we still need to actually tell our loved ones that we love them. This love is not actions instead of truth but action in addition to truth. We tell people that we love them and then we demonstrate that we love them by spending our lives in acts of love. Let me give you several descriptions of what this kind of love looks like in your daily life.

This kind of love is Christ-centered, cross-empowered and worship-driven. Our love must be founded upon and driven by the love of Christ expressed at and empowered by the cross. This is active love but it is still Christian love. I said last week than non-Christians can learn to love as well. Christians certainly do not have a corner on the market of love. But in eternity, what happens to the loving actions of non-believers? They all disappear in a puff of smoke. Anything that is not done in the name of Christ and in the power of the Spirit will not last. Your neighbor might be a nice guy, but all of his loving actions count for nothing. They cannot earn his salvation and they will burn up at the judgment. But as Christians who have passed over from death to life, our acts of love must begin at the cross. If they are not Christ-centered, cross-empowered and worship-driven, they are just nothing more than good deeds that any secular person or government agency could do just as well.

In John 15, Jesus said, “Apart from me you can do nothing.” What does this verse mean? I will give you a simple interpretation. It means, apart from me you can do nothing! What can we do apart from Christ? Nothing. What act of love matters apart from Christ? None of them. Any act of love that is not Christ-centered, cross-empowered and worship-driven counts for what? Nothing. Do you get the picture here? Jesus did not give his life for you so that you could be a nice person. Jesus did not laid down his life for you so that you could get your finances in order, so that your marriage would be a little better or to bring fulfillment to your career. You can get all of those things apart from Christ. Jesus laid down his life for you so that you could learn to love and so that every single act of love can testify to his saving power and our humble dependence upon him. Jesus laid down his life for you so that every act of love, in some small way, tells the world that we were desperate sinners and by nature objects of God’s wrath, until he turned away the Father’s wrath, forgave our sins and breathed life into our spiritually dead souls. Our acts of love then must be mini-sermons of the gospel of grace.

This why I said this kind of love is worship-driven. When we respond to the gospel, even prior to love, our first response is worship. When John writes, “See what kind of love the Father has given us that we should be called children of God,” he intends that to be a response of worship. When we know that we have been saved from judgment and more still, that we are sons and daughters of the Father, the only right response is worship. And it is an intimate worship. We must be able to feel this love. It must increase our intimacy. When you think about the cross and God as your Father, do you feel it? I don’t mean it is a constant sense of intimacy that never goes away, but don’t you often feel the closeness with your heavenly Father? Maybe its during worship on Sunday morning. Maybe it during your quite time or while you are playing with your kids. Sometimes it’s when life throws a trial at you that you feel this intimacy with your Father. The best and most imitate relationship you can ever have in this life is only a shadow of the intimacy with our Father. Worship won’t always be emotional, but if it is never or rarely something you can feel, there must be something amiss with your concept of God. We respond to the cross and to this intimacy with worship and it this very worship which in turn is the driving force in our acts of love for others.

This leads to the second description of this love—it is supernatural. To the outside observer, our acts of love may look like everyone else’s, but in reality they are forged in furnace of God’s supernatural power. These acts of love flow out of a changed heart and each of them is supernaturally empowered by the Holy Spirit, because if it is not this way, it is…nothing. This is supernatural love.

But at the same time that our love is supernatural love, it is also amazingly ordinary. Let me ask you this: can you change a diaper in supernatural, Christ-centered love? Yes you can! Indeed, I would argue we must change diapers in supernatural, Christ-centered love. Ninety-nine percent of our acts of love are incredibly ordinary. Changing a diaper for the tenth time that day;  washing that massive pile of dishes, dragging our behinds out of bed and heading off to work even when you are dead-tired; hauling refrigerators and stoves up long narrow steps—as some of you did this past week; writing a short note of encouragement. These and countless more things are incredibly ordinary acts of love and we don’t always see them this way because we are trained to only see exciting acts of love. If you travel to the other side of the world in order to feed poor people, that looks like an exciting act of love. And it is exciting—and it is love—but it is no more important than changing a diaper. I keep using the illustration of a diaper because it is so mundane and ordinary, but that is just the point. Almost all of our acts of love are ordinary like this, and each of these acts of love can be Christ-centered, gospel-empowered acts of love. Or they can be awful, tiresome and full of complaint. The choice is yours. I don’t mean we should be silly about all of this. I don’t recommend you put your child on the changing table and announce in a bold voice, “In the name of Jesus I change this stinky diaper!” That’s just weird! But I am saying that even the most ordinary daily acts of love can truly be supernatural and Christ-dependent.

Fourth, this kind of love is obedient love. Verse twenty-three reads, And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. Loving one another is an act of obedience and we should do it whether or not we feel like it. It seems that when we do an act of love that we should be filled with loving feelings when we do it. I think that is true for the most part, but at its core, love is still a command and an act of obedience. Even if we don’t feel like loving others we need to walk in faith and do it. This is when we can truly see the supernatural aspect of love come forth. If I need to forgive a person who has hurt me, do I automatically have a heart full of loving feelings before I forgive them? Almost certainly not, but we do it anyway. We fall on our knees and say, “Lord, you know this is impossible. You know I cannot do this. Do it through me, Lord.” Love is simple obedience done with supernatural power.

Fifth, love is uncomfortable. Many acts of love require that we be yanked out of our comfort zone. We think of love as a warm fuzzy, but love is often very uncomfortable. Let me offer a challenge to you. At the end of the service last week, I suggested two ways you could immediately put your love into action: by helping Lance unload the tables from his truck or by talking with someone you had never met or don’t know very well. I know that several of you did help with the tables, but how many talked with someone they didn’t know? How many intentionally sought out a new person to talk with them and make them feel welcome? Why not? Because it is uncomfortable. I know this kind of thing can be not only uncomfortable for many, but downright terrifying. Let me quickly add a sixth description. This kind of love is terrifying. All the more reason for it to be Christ-centered and cross-empowered, right?! But let’s be clear: welcoming a visitor may be uncomfortable, but it is love. Encouraging another person while you munch on a cookie is love.

It is amazing how me-centered coming to church can be. We walk into church thinking, “Man, I hope the sermon is good this morning and not a waste of my time like last week. The worship team better not sing that song, or I may not come back again.” We come into church, sit down and begin nursing our own problems, rehearsing issues we may have with the man or woman across the aisle, or wondering who is going to make us feel better today. It’s no wonder we can’t welcome a newcomer—we are so trapped inside our own little cocoon that we couldn’t possibly see the needs of those around us. The person that needs to be welcomed or needs to be encouraged after church is like the person who has a material need—if you see them, and like John says, don’t have pity and compassion on them, how can the love of God be in us?

This kind of love is unseen, dirty, costly and painful. But it is also joyful, wonderful, faith-stretching and God-glorifying. Chances are that you will never give your life to save another. But that is not what John meant nor what God desires. Instead, he asks us to spend our lives in love. So ask yourself this question: “Each day am I spending my life in acts of love?”

Rich Maurer

July 29, 2007