6-14-98....... I Love You!........ I John 3

by Ronald E. George Jr.

The Message of Love!

Nobody's sweetheart is ugly. -- Dutch. People in love think other people's eyes are out. -- Spanish. Love is blind. -- English. Faults are thick where love is thin. -- Welsh. To love and to be wise is impossible. -- Spanish. True love never grows heavy. Who would be loved must love. Love warms more than a thousand fires. Love rules without law. Love is master of all arts. -- Italian. Love subdues all but the ruffian's heart. -- French.

Scripture text:

1Joh 3:9 (KJS) Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. 10 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. 11 For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12 Not as Cain, [who] was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous. 13 Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. 14 We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not [his] brother abideth in death. 15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. 16 Hereby perceive we the love [of God], because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down [our] lives for the brethren. 17 But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels [of compassion] from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? 18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.

Have you heard the news? Did you see the news? God has a message for us.

This is the Good News…I love you!

This is the message…that God has had for us from the beginning. He loves us and wants us to love him and to love others.

How do you know? He came for us.

He wants us to love Him and love one another. Our love for him is shown in that we love one another. This is the horizontal and vertical dimensions of the cross.

Where is your brother?

Am I my brother’s keeper?

Two different kinds of messages in the world. Those who care and love one another and those who care only for themselves and hate one another. There are those who keep their brothers and those who kill their brothers.

Cain was his brother’s keeper but he became his brother’s killer.

This is the contrast between keeping our brother and killing our brother! Who is my brother? The struggle is within ourselves to come to God’s way on go on our own.

He has given this message to us.

What are we to do with it? Pass it on.

How do you pass it on? This is the standard of the judgement.

Matt 25:34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: 36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. 37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed [thee]? or thirsty, and gave [thee] drink? 38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took [thee] in? or naked, and clothed [thee]? 39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

v. 18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.

Don’t be distracted. The message of God, the message of the church, the message of the Christian is I love you. This is what we are to be about as Children of God. Sharing the Good News that God loves you and I am trying with the love of God to love you too.

Don’t be dismayed. How can we love one another?

We must love God first. The struggle is within us to give God and his love to one another.

No one ever said it better than C. S. Lewis: To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket -safe, dark, motionless, airless -- it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.... The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers of love... is Hell.

Don’t be disobedient. We have to love others with the very love of the father. Will we love God? Will we love one another?