“What’s Love Got To Do With It?”
Text: 1 John 4:7-21
12-24-2021
In the name of our Savior, born in a stable, dear friends in Christ. In our Epistle lesson for tonight St. John is trying to tell us something very important about God’s love. I know, I know. “Thank you Captain Obvious!” After all, the word “love” pops up 27 times in those 14 verses. And it’s even more than that if you count the word “beloved” which is derived from the same root in the Greek. So what’s the big deal about love and why do we have this reading about it on Christmas Eve? Or, to quote that icon of virtue, Tina Turner, “What’s love got to do with it?” Well, even though that song makes an unbelievably stupid statement regarding human love, it’s actually a good question to ask about Christ’s birth. What’s love got to do with Christmas? And the answer is, everything!
First of all, one of the most striking things that John says is those 3 simple words, “God is love.” He’s telling us that love is not just what God does or feels. It’s the core substance of His being. No one else in the universe can say that. He loves because it radiates from every fiber of His being. It’s like saying, “The sun shines.” That’s just what it does, because it’s the nature and essence of the sun to shine. God loves because the very nature and essence of God IS love.
But John makes it clear that love always leads to loving actions. Yes, we may feel love towards another person, however, that love always seeks for a way to be expressed either in words or actions. Think about a marriage. If a husband doesn’t say “I love you” to his wife after their wedding day or doesn’t show his love regularly with some action that reflects his affection then we would rightly doubt if he actually still loves her. There needs to be actions to go with the love that he supposedly harbors in his heart for her. God doesn’t have that problem. Not only is love His very essence but it’s naturally expressed in His loving words and actions. Which leads us directly to the manger in Bethlehem. Verse 9 of our text sounds reminiscent of John 3:16. He says, “In this the love of God was made manifest among us…” That is to say, here is how God’s love was revealed or expressed to us: “God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him.” You see, the Lord didn’t leave any doubt about His great love for us. He didn’t just speak about His love. Instead, it resulted in a concrete and decisive action. He sent His love down to us in human flesh and blood. God’s love came down from heaven in person when the Son took on human flesh and was born in Bethlehem.
And there’s more. The Greek word that John uses in our text for “love” is “agape.” It’s far different than what we understand as human love. This is divine love which is holy, pure, and unconditional. It’s not tainted by sinful selfishness that’s always looking for something in return. No, God loved us first even before we loved Him back. John says it this way in verse 10, “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” That’s another amazing attribute of God’s love. It gives of itself and sacrifices for the ones who are the object of this love. That’s what the Lord did when He gave His Son to be our Savior. The Christmas story may almost sound like a fairy tale with a warm and cozy newborn baby lying safely snuggled in a bed of hay. But not when you consider that God the Son sacrificed so much just simply by coming down to become one of us. He set aside His majestic glory to do it, knowing that 33 years later it would lead to His death on a cross. But the Second Person of the Trinity was willing to do it because of His immense, agape love; that very love which is His essence. I guess you could say He couldn’t help Himself. His great love compelled Him to sacrifice everything for us and to give it unconditionally.
So, what’s love got to do with it? Well, we’d have to say that it’s at the core of why we’re able to celebrate the birth of Jesus at Christmastime because love is the very essence of God. We are the recipients of that great love. And now, St. John tells us, our appropriate response is to go out and share that love with the world around us. Share that unconditional love of God unconditionally with all people letting them know that it extends to them too from that precious babe of Bethlehem. May the Lord give us that same Christ-like love and the willingness to give it freely to others. And may we all have a truly blessed Christmas as we celebrate the love of God coming down in human flesh to be our brother and Savior. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!