Scripture Passage: 1 For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, 12 not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous. 13 Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love [a]his brother abides in death. 15 Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. 16 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17 But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? 18 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. (1 John 3:11-18 NKJV)
In our last post, we talked about God’s love and how alien it is to the entire world system. We talked about how His love translates to us in a manner that makes us citizens of Heaven. Children of God. And therefore, alien ourselves to the world.
God’s love is so fantastical that it literally transforms His children from the inside out. It causes a transformation in us that the ‘World’ no longer recognizes us as one of its own. It no longer knows us. And it becomes hostile.
Last time, we looked at how God’s foreign and quite alien love changes us. In today’s passage, I wanted to take a look at what that change truly looks like. And as we go through it, I’d like you to bear one simple question in mind: “What country is my love from?” Is it foreign? Alien? Or is it a carbon copy of the rest of the world’s idea of love?
Holy Love
Before we proceed, let’s back up for a second and look at verse 10 of chapter three: By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
Up until this point, John has been talking with the Church about holiness. About living a righteous life. About living in the light and not in darkness. 1John 3:10 marks a bit of a transition in theme. He’s moving from the righteous life of a Christian to divine love and what it should look like. He started out the entire chapter with praising and admiring the love of God and now, he’s turning his sights to us. On our love. He tells us that not only can you tell a true believer by their righteous works, but also by the love they exhibit to their brothers and sisters. If we don’t have or exhibit love to others, there might be a major issue with our salvation…or worse, we’re not children of God, but children of the devil himself.
See How They Love…
Second century Roman theologian Tertullian is famous for the line: “See how they love one another!” It is a reference for the Romans’ view of Christians and their odd ‘love’, which was so different from their own culture. Tertullian remarked that his fellow Romans regarded Christian love with suspicion because of how different it was from their own culture, which was often accompanied by jealousy, hatred, and deceit. If you want to know how Romans loved, look no further than their own pantheon of gods and their behavior toward one another.
When Christians came along with their strange altruistic form of love, naturally it was quite jarring for the Roman world. So outside the norm. And it often led to outright animosity between the Roman hierarchy and the early Christians.
What is love?
So, the real question we should ask ourselves is, “What is love?” We all have our ideas of love. Many well-meaning Christians throw the word ‘love’ around like confetti at a ticker-tape parade. It’s one of those English words that can mean so many different things and yet not mean anything at all.
Case in point, the Greek has five different words that mean love: eros, philea, storge, xenia, and agape. Eros, of course, is sexual love…the love between a man and a woman. Philea is ‘brotherly love’ or friendship. Storge is familial love, or the love one has for his parents or children. Xenia isn’t really love at all, but rather a high concept of hospitality or helping strangers in need simply because they need help. And finally, there is agape.
Agape is the love the world system doesn’t understand. It is divine love. Perfect love. Unconditional love. It isn’t rooted in affection or sentimentality. It’s not predicated upon reciprocity. It is freely given. It is an action. A verb. And it goes beyond the world can possibly understand.
Agape is not about feelings. It’s about truth. The truth of who God is. Agape is a reflection of infinite God, who has no bounds or weaknesses. And it is agape that John is using here in this text. It is agape that is used in John 3:16. It is agape that Jesus commanded us to have with our brothers and sisters in Christ over and over again in the gospels. It is agape that Paul writes about consistently. And it is agape that is used by John here in this letter.
No Greater Love…
I’ve spent a great deal of time describe agape in metaphysical and poetic terms, but what is it in reality? What does agape look like? When John tells us in verse 18 that we shouldn’t just love in lip service, but in deed and in truth, what does he mean? What’s the practical application here?
Jesus gives us a pretty good real-world picture of what agape is when he told his disciples, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)
Paul carries on this description when he talks about the relationship between a husband for his wife: “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it…” (Ephesians 5:25). John the Baptist demonstrated agape when he told his disciples that he must decrease and that Christ must increase (John 3:30).
Get the picture yet? Agape (love) is sacrificial love. It is putting ourselves second or even last for the needs of others (especially our Christian brothers and sisters). It is about turning the other cheek seventy times seven and then some. It is about decreasing, decreasing, decreasing, so that our brothers and sisters can thrive and be elevated. It is about dying to self so that others are raised up.
These are all attributes of love that Christ displayed in His earthly ministry. It is the entire theme of the gospel message…the good news is that Jesus agapes us to the point of dying on a cross to redeem us.
No wonder the world can’t fathom such love! No wonder it mistrusts it and doesn’t appreciate its presence in its own pantheon of love. It is so foreign. So alien. So what about you? Is it foreign to you as well? Or do you embrace it fully and wholeheartedly with open arms?
Father God, help us to reflect your own unique love. Help us to demonstrate what it means to love perfectly, sacrificially, and fully. Thank you for giving us an example of that love in your Son, Jesus Christ. Help us, Lord, to be aliens in an alien world. Help our love to be so bold and so bizarre that no one can understand it. Amen.
