Love with Action and in Truth

1 John 3:16-18

 

1. The film “Love Story” in 1970 hit the hearts of my generation. It was a tragic but beautiful love story. Still, I love to listen to its theme song “Where do I begin?” and it painfully sings Oliver’s memory of Jenny’s love: “With her first hello, she gave new meaning to this empty world of mine… She fills my heart… She fills my soul with so much love.” Love really fills our heart and our soul. Nothing is really able to fill our lonely heart except love. Money, power, position, pleasure, game or anything in this world can not fill our heart fully.

2. Human is like a bottomless pit, which demands to fill endlessly. Human desires are never satisfied due to the spiritual hunger of selfish sinfulness. However, it is easily filled even by a small love. Then, our hunger and thirst is settled down. Parents’ love, especially mother’s love is the source of human peace and courage. When a man and a woman love each other, their hearts are filled and never lonely. Why does love fill human heart and settle human wandering? The Bible gives the answer: Human is created in the image of God, who is Love. Therefore, everything else is mere instrument, while love is essentially human as well as divine.

3. However, it is regrettable that a human love has definite limitation to fill the human heart to the deepest part, and we humans are sinners who love ourselves than anybody else. Therefore, even such a loving husband and wife fights and even divorces, and even a beloved child despises parents. Some leave them in various reasons including death. As Jesus pointed out, we love only those who love us. And, we are used to complaint why they do not love us, justifying why we do not love them. A baby always demands love, being incapable to love others. But when they grow, they learn to care and love others. Therefore, love means maturity. But so many adults are still immature to demand love from everybody around them, without loving others.

4. We Christians are those whose hearts are filled by the love of Jesus Christ our Lord. His love deeply moved our soul and filled our heart to the deepest part. Now we are never lonely in any situation even to eternity. His love is so compelling and so full that we have devoted our remaining life for Him as our Lord. Nothing will really disturb our heart and our life but a temporary failure.

5. The love of Jesus has been unknown to the sinful humanity. Human love has been either selfish or erotic. We have loved only ours: ourselves and our belongings. We have loved only our friends, those who love us. We have loved only with what we have, not with what we are. However, the love of Jesus was fundamentally different from ours: “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.”(16a) He loved us when we were His enemies. (Rom 5:10) He loved us not with some grace but with His life. It was a strange and totally un-expectable love. When we heard this love, we simply cried and became His servant. It is salvation of humanity because we are finally returning to God and our nature: our eternal reconciliation and our ultimate peace. Now we care only love, not anything else.

6. The love Jesus gave and filled us is not to reinforce or strengthen our selfish love but to overcome it with the genuine love that we have learned from our Lord. Therefore the Word of God continues: “And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”(16b) Or, we have not truly learned the love of Jesus. So, we are challenged: “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?”(17) That’s why we Kalamazoo Korean church should arise and shine not only the Gospel light of truth in evangelism and mission but also the warm light of love to the needy and weak in our community and farther. Now one billion fellow humans are under the dying pain of hunger. Even in Kalamazoo, 30% of population is poorly living under the poverty line, surviving with the income of less than 20 thousand dollars a year for four people family. They are waiting desperately for our help especially in this kind of cold winter season.

7. Apostle John, the so-called apostle of love, challenges us: “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”(18) We are easily fallen to the love with words or tongue only, with lip service, with prayer and praise. Because still we have the sinful ego which is lazy in good work and skillfully avoid losing our comfort. How bad we are! We received the great love from Jesus but we are so stingy to give love for the needy. We need love “with action”. Do not hesitate or resist loving the needy. This is the most essential duty of a Christian to pay back, and this is “the highest law”(James 2:8), “the greatest law”(Mark 12:31), and “the fulfillment of the law”.(Rom 13:10) And let us love “in truth”. No benevolence in hypocrisy! Love is not a way of garbage cleaning. Love the person first and give something you can with respect and compassion. Not only once or twice a year but always as our everyday life of love.

8. The cross of Christ is the symbol of true love. The world and humanity have learned true love from Jesus. The most benevolence works in the world are operated by Christians who learned love from Christ. The Lord’s Supper is the sacrament to remember the love of Christ for us on the Cross. Remembrance is not simply to remember the event cognitively but really to repent and rededicate ourselves for practicing His love for our needy neighbors. So, there is a tradition in the church that we make offering for the poor after receiving the Eucharist. Love grows when we share love. May God bless you to be the passionate instrument of Christ’s love in this year!