By this we know love
The 1st letter of John is a remarkable piece of work. It was written by the apostle John, the man known as the beloved disciple – by the time he wrote this book he was probably the only apostle still alive, and as an eye witness of the work on earth of Jesus his writing claims a particular authority.
John, by this time in his life, was probably eighty or ninety years old. Nearly sixty years had passed since Jesus lived, died and rose from the dead. For sixty years, John had been thinking deeply and profoundly about Jesus, and he then wrote this book.
After sixty yeas of contemplation, he writes the incredible words, “By this we know love.” (1 John 3:16) And that is what so many people in life search for. We want to know love. We want to know what love is because we sense that all meaning and happiness and goodness in life comes from knowing love. The primary meaning and happiness of our lives does not come from our jobs. The primary meaning and happiness of our lives does not from money that we have accumulated. The primary meaning and happiness of our lives does not come from fame. Not from status. The primary meaning and happiness of life comes from knowing true love.
John writes, “By this we know love, that Jesus laid his life down for us.” The most perfect display of love, the most incredible sacrifice that can ever be made on behalf of another is to give your life for another, and that is what Jesus did for us. It’s an amazing gesture, but sometimes the knowledge of God’s love for us is lessened in importance by our neglect, we almost take it for granted, but God’s love is an unbreakable and unceasing bond…
But then John moves on to say that actually our praise and our recognition of God’s love for us is measured by our response to him and, crucially, to each other. John writes, ‘…we ought to lay down our lives for one another…’
In Church we rightly sing and speak of love on a regular basis – it is the central characteristic of our faith, and yet it is a characteristic that it’s so easy for us to lay aside, and John understood this well as he wrote.
He too would undoubtedly have met people he found it difficult to like, many people would have tried to attack him and persecute him, many would surely have chosen to ignore his eye witness account of Jesus, and yet as well as understanding the very real human problems of loving, he knew also it’s importance…
Jesus provided many examples of tolerance in his life on earth – he was tolerant of the disciples when they doubted, he was tolerant of the crowds of people when they misunderstood what he was there for, and we take great comfort today in knowing that he is tolerant when we fail.
Rightly the Church now spends a lot of time stressing the joys of a relationship with Christ – a relationship built on fear as so often it had been in the past is not a real relationship at all, but as we stress the all loving, all inclusive nature of Jesus, we must be wary of watering down the message that he brought.
Jesus forgives wrongdoing, but he doesn’t forgive not been willing to try. Jesus forgives our failures, but he doesn’t forgive our lack of effort, Jesus forgives our weakness, but he doesn’t forgive our unwillingness to use the strength he has given us.
And on his command to love Jesus was unbending, and this is the message John is giving in this letter. Apparently I read that in the United States Treasury Department there is a department for people who have a special job to track down counterfeit money. Naturally these people need to know a counterfeit when they see it, but they’re training doesn’t spend long periods looking at counterfeits, but rather at the real thing.
They study real notes – the look of them, the marks of them, the feel of them – they become so familiar with the real thing that they can spot a fake easily. And that is the approach of John in this letter. He wants us to so clothe ourselves in the life and work of Jesus that people can see him through our words and our actions.
But many of us will no doubt wonder how it is possible to be worthy or good enough to receive the credit of God, but John helps us with this as well as he writes, ‘For if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts...’ In other words when we feel we are having problems in loving or believing, we can be sure that God’s love is stronger than our doubting or condemning hearts… He will get us through any situation if we trust him to.
On the morning of December 7, 1941 Jacob DeShazer was doing kitchen duty when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour. On April 18, 1942 Bombardier Sergeant DeShazer, full of hatred for the Japanese took off from the aircraft carrier Hornet on the first American bombing run over Tokyo.
When his bomber ran out of fuel DeShazer was captured by the Japanese and tortured. His bitterness and hatred toward the Japanese only increased. His hatred for his Japanese captors was so violent and so vicious that they were afraid of him and kept him in solitary confinement.
In a remarkable way he was given a copy of the Bible and he began to read through it. Reading through the Bible, in the loneliness of his cell, DeShazer came to realize the life that he could have in Jesus…
DeShazer changed. His hatred of the Japanese changed completely. He began to love his captors and to show love towards them. The Japanese were astonished by what had happened to him. Instead of resentment and viciousness he became the most co-operative prisoner and prayed for them. After the war DeShazer’s testimony of God’s salvation and God’s love being able to change the human heart was printed in a tract and distributed in Japan.
The story doesn’t end there. There’s a book Mitsuo Fuchida entitled, “From Pearl Harbour To Golgotha.” Captain Mitsuo Fuchida was the man who led the Japanese air raid against Pearl Harbour, the man who gave the command to drop the bombs.
Mitsuo Fuchida was a hero in Japan after the war because of his military service but his heart was empty. One day he was given the tract that told of DeShazer’s change of heart. From somewhere he obtained a New Testament. He began to read it with growing interest. Finally, he came to the account of the crucifixion and the words of Jesus, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do” - Jesus praying for the soldiers who were about to thrust a spear through His side. (Luke 23:34)
Fuchida realized that Jesus, who could love His enemies and pray for those who persecuted Him, those who abused and spitefully used Him - this Jesus was showing a quality of life that no natural human being could possibly show. Fuchida’s heart broke and he accepted Jesus as his personal Saviour.
Fuchida wrote to DeShazer and eventually they met in Osaka. The man who hated the Japanese - and the man who helped to put that hatred there. Now, brothers in love with the same Saviour and with each other.
That’s the love that we need to have for each other - the quality of love that can only come from hearts surrendered to God’s work and power within us.
Its a radical and different picture of church than many are used to. It means that the church is not an institution or a place where a group of people get together once a week to sing and pray and go through a set of rituals. The church is a community of people who radically love each other. Who - in total openness to the work of God in their lives are willing to humbly give everything for each other - because they personally know the love that Jesus Christ has for them. May that be our Church, and those be our lives. AMEN
John, by this time in his life, was probably eighty or ninety years old. Nearly sixty years had passed since Jesus lived, died and rose from the dead. For sixty years, John had been thinking deeply and profoundly about Jesus, and he then wrote this book.
After sixty yeas of contemplation, he writes the incredible words, “By this we know love.” (1 John 3:16) And that is what so many people in life search for. We want to know love. We want to know what love is because we sense that all meaning and happiness and goodness in life comes from knowing love. The primary meaning and happiness of our lives does not come from our jobs. The primary meaning and happiness of our lives does not from money that we have accumulated. The primary meaning and happiness of our lives does not come from fame. Not from status. The primary meaning and happiness of life comes from knowing true love.
John writes, “By this we know love, that Jesus laid his life down for us.” The most perfect display of love, the most incredible sacrifice that can ever be made on behalf of another is to give your life for another, and that is what Jesus did for us. It’s an amazing gesture, but sometimes the knowledge of God’s love for us is lessened in importance by our neglect, we almost take it for granted, but God’s love is an unbreakable and unceasing bond…
But then John moves on to say that actually our praise and our recognition of God’s love for us is measured by our response to him and, crucially, to each other. John writes, ‘…we ought to lay down our lives for one another…’
In Church we rightly sing and speak of love on a regular basis – it is the central characteristic of our faith, and yet it is a characteristic that it’s so easy for us to lay aside, and John understood this well as he wrote.
He too would undoubtedly have met people he found it difficult to like, many people would have tried to attack him and persecute him, many would surely have chosen to ignore his eye witness account of Jesus, and yet as well as understanding the very real human problems of loving, he knew also it’s importance…
Jesus provided many examples of tolerance in his life on earth – he was tolerant of the disciples when they doubted, he was tolerant of the crowds of people when they misunderstood what he was there for, and we take great comfort today in knowing that he is tolerant when we fail.
Rightly the Church now spends a lot of time stressing the joys of a relationship with Christ – a relationship built on fear as so often it had been in the past is not a real relationship at all, but as we stress the all loving, all inclusive nature of Jesus, we must be wary of watering down the message that he brought.
Jesus forgives wrongdoing, but he doesn’t forgive not been willing to try. Jesus forgives our failures, but he doesn’t forgive our lack of effort, Jesus forgives our weakness, but he doesn’t forgive our unwillingness to use the strength he has given us.
And on his command to love Jesus was unbending, and this is the message John is giving in this letter. Apparently I read that in the United States Treasury Department there is a department for people who have a special job to track down counterfeit money. Naturally these people need to know a counterfeit when they see it, but they’re training doesn’t spend long periods looking at counterfeits, but rather at the real thing.
They study real notes – the look of them, the marks of them, the feel of them – they become so familiar with the real thing that they can spot a fake easily. And that is the approach of John in this letter. He wants us to so clothe ourselves in the life and work of Jesus that people can see him through our words and our actions.
But many of us will no doubt wonder how it is possible to be worthy or good enough to receive the credit of God, but John helps us with this as well as he writes, ‘For if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts...’ In other words when we feel we are having problems in loving or believing, we can be sure that God’s love is stronger than our doubting or condemning hearts… He will get us through any situation if we trust him to.
On the morning of December 7, 1941 Jacob DeShazer was doing kitchen duty when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour. On April 18, 1942 Bombardier Sergeant DeShazer, full of hatred for the Japanese took off from the aircraft carrier Hornet on the first American bombing run over Tokyo.
When his bomber ran out of fuel DeShazer was captured by the Japanese and tortured. His bitterness and hatred toward the Japanese only increased. His hatred for his Japanese captors was so violent and so vicious that they were afraid of him and kept him in solitary confinement.
In a remarkable way he was given a copy of the Bible and he began to read through it. Reading through the Bible, in the loneliness of his cell, DeShazer came to realize the life that he could have in Jesus…
DeShazer changed. His hatred of the Japanese changed completely. He began to love his captors and to show love towards them. The Japanese were astonished by what had happened to him. Instead of resentment and viciousness he became the most co-operative prisoner and prayed for them. After the war DeShazer’s testimony of God’s salvation and God’s love being able to change the human heart was printed in a tract and distributed in Japan.
The story doesn’t end there. There’s a book Mitsuo Fuchida entitled, “From Pearl Harbour To Golgotha.” Captain Mitsuo Fuchida was the man who led the Japanese air raid against Pearl Harbour, the man who gave the command to drop the bombs.
Mitsuo Fuchida was a hero in Japan after the war because of his military service but his heart was empty. One day he was given the tract that told of DeShazer’s change of heart. From somewhere he obtained a New Testament. He began to read it with growing interest. Finally, he came to the account of the crucifixion and the words of Jesus, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do” - Jesus praying for the soldiers who were about to thrust a spear through His side. (Luke 23:34)
Fuchida realized that Jesus, who could love His enemies and pray for those who persecuted Him, those who abused and spitefully used Him - this Jesus was showing a quality of life that no natural human being could possibly show. Fuchida’s heart broke and he accepted Jesus as his personal Saviour.
Fuchida wrote to DeShazer and eventually they met in Osaka. The man who hated the Japanese - and the man who helped to put that hatred there. Now, brothers in love with the same Saviour and with each other.
That’s the love that we need to have for each other - the quality of love that can only come from hearts surrendered to God’s work and power within us.
Its a radical and different picture of church than many are used to. It means that the church is not an institution or a place where a group of people get together once a week to sing and pray and go through a set of rituals. The church is a community of people who radically love each other. Who - in total openness to the work of God in their lives are willing to humbly give everything for each other - because they personally know the love that Jesus Christ has for them. May that be our Church, and those be our lives. AMEN
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