With Love
A Sermon based on John 3:16-7, used for 4 Lent on February 17, 2008
Perhaps the three most-used words in the English language are “I love you.” Those are some of the first words a young child says to their mommy and daddy. Grandchildren tell their grandparents “I love you.” Teenagers say to their new love “I love you” and “I’ll never love anyone like I love you.” A couple “falls madly in love,” says “I love you,” and run off to get married.
Yet these words are also among the most misused words in modern America. “I love you” can mean anything from “I’d like to have sex with you” to “I can’t live without you; I need you.” These words have come to mean “I can’t exist without you — I must have you or I’ll die!” Those three simple words can mean so many things to so many different people.
Today I invite you to see God’s “I love you” and to understand what that means. Then we’ll look at what it means for you and me to say “I love you” to one another. And, finally, we will see what those three simple words should mean when we say them to other Christians and even to the whole world.
To begin with, let me repeat part of today’s Gospel lesson, from John 3:16.
For God loved the world so much that He gave His one-and-only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life.
Here God tells us “I love you.” His words are very clear. There is no doubt at all what God has in mind by them. God cared about us so much, He was totally concerned about us, that He gave up His one-and-only Son to death on a cross. God was concerned that, because of our sin, we would die eternally. So He sent His-one-and only Son into this world to suffer and die on a cross that through faith in Him we might have life everlasting!
The word used for love here is agape in Greek. It’s not philia — companionship-type love. It’s not storge love — the affection practiced in the family circle. It’s not eros love — love that is sexual in nature.
Agape love is a special, self-giving love. It is love that’s shown, first of all, by God in giving up someone most important to Him (His Son) that He might purchase us back from sin, death, and the devil. It’s the type of love that shows itself in action—in the action of sending His Son to the world to come and die for us.
It’s a self-giving love. It’s a love that thinks not of itself, as so many of our “I love you” ’s do, but thinks of others. It’s a love that is so strong that, even though Jesus wished there was another way to save us than His death on the cross, He went to the cross and freely died there for you and for me—because He loves us.
That’s really love. To totally give up yourself for others. To give up your life for others. Not like the love we so often talk about, love that is more concerned with what you can do for me rather than what I can do for you. Love that is totally committed to you rather than only needing you to make me a whole person. Love that shows through its actions that “I care about you” rather than showing I care only about me. Agape, love shown by God to people who hated Him when He was in the process of acting for us.
Love that purchased you and me from death, an eternal death. “For God loved the world so much…” — God loved you and me so greatly — “…that He gave His one-and-only Son…” — God the Father send Jesus Christ, His only Son, to earth — “…so that everyone who believes in Him…” — whoever believes in Jesus as their own personal Savior and Lord — “…would not perish but have everlasting life.”
Friends, that is the good news about Jesus Christ. That’s what it means when God says, “I love you.” Who could ask for more love than that?
What does this mean for you and me? First of all, through faith in Jesus Christ, life everlasting is ours. It is a sure hope and promise. That means it’s true, with no doubt about it. It is ours by faith because of what Jesus did for us. It is beyond doubt.
Second, it says something about how we should treat one another. We, too, should love. Jesus said,
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must also love one another. All men will know that you are My disciples if you love one another.
By how we treat one another, by the way we deal with each other, we show our love for Jesus. That means some changed relationships. It means truly caring about each other as important individuals, just as Christ cared for us, giving up His life for us.
We’re called, as believers in Christ, to live as He lived. We’re called to love as He loved. And to love as Jesus loved means to care enough to be willing to give up everything for others. No, it means more than that. I means giving up everything for others. As Christians we should be known by our love. We should be the most loving people in the world, because we follow the example of Jesus’ life-giving love given to us.
It is to have Jesus-type love. As I mentioned earlier, there are four major words for love in Greek, the language of the New Testament. As I looked for these words, I found an interesting fact. God doesn’t talk about storge-love. He doesn’t talk about eros-love, that is, the sensual, sexual type of love. Eros-love is the most common type of love our culture talks about today. There are a few instances (30 or so) of philia-love—the brotherly love we have for one another, as is Philadelphia, the city of “brotherly love.”
No, the love God talks about in the New Testament is primarily agape-love. It’s used almost 200 times. That should say something to us about the type of love that is important to God.
We need to be like God. To say “I love you” to each other. To say it in Christ, who first loved us and shows us how we ought to love others. To say it totally. To say it unselfishly. To say it through our actions, not just with words.
And that love that God has shown us through Christ Jesus leads us to move out to bring others to that great love. Because Christ has shown us His love for us on the cross, we’re empowered and enabled to go out and tell others that God’s love might be theirs, too. We must constantly remind one another to tell others of God’s love by word and deed.
That is the message I wish to leave you with today. To say “I love you.” I love you because Christ first loved me and died for me and you and you, that we all might have life everlasting.
To encourage you to say “I love you” to your fellow pilgrims. To encourage you to work on your relationships with them. Together, as members of one loving family of God, to move out from this place telling others “We love you,” in both word and action. Telling them so they, too, may learn of Jesus’ love for them, catch that love, and share it with others.
“God so loved the world…” today’s text begins. The Father loves you. He loves me. He loves the whole world. He loves us so much that He send His one and only Son—not to condemn the world (we do that pretty well ourselves)—but to save the world through Him. He sent He calls us to the same love that He has for us. Not to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.
May we so love [and so live]. Amen.
