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INJ
1 John 3:13-18
'Love in Deed'
Divine Service
The 2nd Sunday after Trinity Sunday | June 17th, 2007
Dear Saints, Beloved of the Lord,
For almost two years now I've been preaching to you, and every sermon I've preached two things, and that's really it. I've been trying to impress them on your mind and into your heart, to say them in many different ways. And now I will say them as simply as possible:
First, you are really really bad.
Second, Jesus is really really good to you.
That just about sums up the faith that makes us Christians. We confess that we are sinners unable and unwilling to do anything good, anything that might please God, and that Christ Jesus, out of His great and undeserved love for us came down to live and die and save us from sin and death.
God's love for us, that is what makes us Christian, what saves us and gives us the sure hope of eternal life, completely apart from anything that we would do. I've been preaching this for two years because I want to make sure that we all have it straight, that there are no questions about it, that we all share in the same assurance that Jesus is our Jesus, the one who forgives all our sins.
For there is no worse idolatry than the belief that we are Jesus, that we save ourselves, that we contribute something to our salvation. This is a lie, the devil's favorite lie, the worst and deepest and most malicious lie that, in the end, is the cause of damnation for everyone in hell: they trusted, even in the smallest way, in themselves and their own goodness.
So we must know it, be absolutely sure of it. We are really really bad. It is God's grace alone, sola gratia, His really really goodness that forgives and saves and gives life.
Have you got it? I think you have, and that's good, because today we are going to add a third point. Martin Luther would often summarize the teaching of the Scriptures in two words: faith and love. We live our lives in faith toward God and in love toward our neighbor. As we pray after the Lord's Supper that the Lord would, by the supreme gift of the Sacrament, strengthen us in faith toward God and fervent love for one another. (It's no surprise that Dr Luther composed this prayer to be prayed in the liturgy.) Faith toward God and love for our neighbor.
And we have to know the difference between the two, for in some ways faith and love are the opposite of each other. Faith is passive, it is receptive, it is the opposite of doing, faith receives. Faith has nothing unless it is given to; it has nothing to trust unless it has heard a promise, and even faith itself is a gift. “By grace you are saved, through faith, and that [faith] is not of your own, it is the gift of God.” [Ephesians 2:8] That's why salvation is by faith, and not works, the two exclude each other.
Love, on the other hand, is active, doing and giving and working. If you wanted a one-word summary of the law, it would be 'love'. That's how Jesus gives it to us. When asked what is the greatest commandment, He gave the top two.
29 Jesus answered, "The most important is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' 31 The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." [Mark 12:29-31]
Love God and love your neighbor, that's the law. St Paul says,
8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, "You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet," and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. [Romans 13:8-10]
Love is always giving, giving of herself. “For God so loved the world that He...” You know what love does, it gives. “...that He gave His only Son.” [John 3:16] “No man has greater love than this, than he lay down his life for his friends.” [John 15:13]
And this is what Jesus does for us, He loves us with the greatest love, that He gives His life for ours. Faith and love, these are different, distinct, but never separate. His love we receive by faith. And this faith which knows the boundless love of Jesus is itself busy and active in love toward the neighbor.
And now we're getting down to business, for Jesus loves us and gives us so much, that we cannot, it's impossible, keep it all to ourselves. His love to us overflows in our lives to those around us, our neighbors. Love is our faith made visible to our neighbors, as Jesus says, “By this all people will know you are My disciples, that you have love for one another.” [John 13:35]
With all of the love Jesus has shown to us, it makes no sense to hate our neighbor, or our brother or sister in Christ. If you know that you have not deserved God's love (that you are really really bad) and even more, you know the height and depth of His love for you (that Jesus is really really good to you), then you will love God and your neighbor. It is the effect which God's love causes. “We love because He first loved us.” [1 John 4:19] “9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 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. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” [1 John 4:9-11]
On the other hand, if there is no love for our brothers and sisters and neighbors, we are show to be without faith in God. “8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” [1 John 4:8] And so we have it in our epistle reading for this second Sunday after Trinity Sunday, this command, from the Lord Jesus and from His apostle John the beloved, to love.
“13 Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. 16 By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” [1 John 3:13-18]
So this command stands before us, the Lord's people, marked with His name in baptism: Love. Not just in word, but in deed and in truth. With our arms and backs and wallets and hearts and everything that we have; all of your heart and soul and mind and strength: love. Love your neighbor. Love your brothers and your sisters. Leave nothing on the table, give it all, that's what Jesus has done for you.
Look around you now. This little congregation of saints and sinners, the Lord has put you into this family, loved you into this, His church, and give you these neighbors and friends, and by this all people will know that you are Jesus' disciples, that you love them.
“But Pastor,” you say, “I thought you've been telling us for two years that we're really really bad.” True. And you are bad at loving one another, just as I am bad at loving you. We are sinners, and we will be until the Lord returns. We don't love with all that we have. But we know Jesus' love for us, so we try, and we start, and we fail and repent and know again Jesus' love for us, and we're back at it, praying that the Lord would grant us His Holy Spirit, that all our doings and life may please Him, and pouring out our lives for each other, loving one another, not in word and talk but in deed and truth.
And so we live in faith toward God, that all our sins and lack of love is forgiven, and in fervent love toward one another. Faith and love. May the Lord increase this in us until He brings us into His perfect love in the glory of His Second Coming. Amen.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller
Hope Lutheran Church | Aurora, CO