Sermon #34 — Learning Love from Jesus — 1 John 3:18-24

For the Christian, love is not a feeling; it is an active endeavor to work toward the well-being of another person.  But our world presents us with many competing definitions of what makes for human well-being.  How are we to seek the well-being of another person?  We can’t unless we have some clear sense of what human well-being consists in.  Are my personal preferences to be my guide?  Are that other person’s preferences and desires to define for me what is necessary for their well-being?  Or are we both to look somewhere else to find a definitive measure of what it means for human beings to be well and to thrive?

The apostle John clearly has something to say to us about that.  For him, Christian love is an active expression that is rooted in a truth that is outside of and other than human preferences or desires.  Human well-being, which is the goal, the aim of Christian love, is defined by God, who is the Designer and Creator of human persons.  God, who knows us better than we can ever know ourselves, defines for us what makes for human well-being.

That definition from God is not something alien, foreign to our nature.  Rather it is utterly in tune with our nature.  Look to God’s guiding.  He will lead you in an active, truthful love.

Read 1 John 3:18-24.

Then, listen to the audio sermon: Learning Love from Jesus.

© 2012 Gary A. Chorpenning; all rights reserved.

Related articles

• Sermon #24 — The God Who Makes Himself Know — 1 John 1:1-4 (gachorpenning.wordpress.com)
• Sermon #25 — Light and Life — 1 John 1:5-10 (gachorpenning.wordpress.com)
• Sermon #26 — Knowing God Through Jesus — 1 John 2:1-6 (gachorpenning.wordpress.com)
• Sermon #27 — Loving Like Jesus — 1 John 2:7-11 (gachorpenning.wordpress.com)
• Sermon #28 — Getting Rooted and Grounded in “Forever” — 1 John 2:12-17 (gachorpenning.wordpress.com)
• Sermon #29 – True Truth, Real Reality, and Discipleship – 1 John 2:18-25 (& Psalm 19) (gachorpenning.wordpress.com)
• Sermon #31 – The Spirit of Religion vs. the New Life in Christ – 1 John 2:28-3:3 (gachorpenning.wordpress.com)
• Sermon #32 – Born Again – 1 John 3:4-10 (gachorpenning.wordpress.com)
• Sermon #33 — Loving our Brothers and Sisters — 1 John 3:11-18 (gachorpenning.wordpress.com)