Gospel of John [20:19]. Christ's Resurrection, part 22 (fellowship with Christ and the Father - Agape).

Title: Gospel of John [20:19]. Christ's Resurrection, part 22 (fellowship with Christ and the Father - Agape).

 

Announcements/opening prayer:

 

 

1JO 4:16 And we have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

 

God's love is spontaneous and unmotivated. God is love. It does not come to man because of any value in him. It is unique - no creature has it. It is the initiator of fellowship with God - God comes to us. We cannot go to Him.

 

1JO 4:17 By this, love is perfected with us, that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world [justified; He is in us and we in Him; the Head and the body].

 

1JO 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.

 

a slide after each one… The fruit [singular] of the Spirit is …

 

1CO 13:4 Love is patient (1), love is kind (2), and is not jealous (3); love does not brag (4) and is not arrogant (5),

 

1CO 13:5 does not act unbecomingly (6); it does not seek its own [excludes all self-love] (7), is not provoked (8), does not take into account a wrong suffered (9),

 

1CO 13:6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness (10), but rejoices with the truth (11);

 

1CO 13:7 bears all things (12), believes all things (13), hopes all things (14), endures all things (15).

 

1CO 13:8 Love never fails [is eternal - God is love]

 

It is tempting for the theologically minded to turn Jesus more or less into a theologian, and ask about His idea or conception of God. He did not do that. He spoke directly what the Father told Him to speak. That's why they marveled at the authority with which He taught. The writers of the NT are not theologians either for what they wrote was fully inspired by God. It is revelation, Christ's mind, and only in the canon is it found. So this isn't Paul's idea of what he interprets agape to mean, it is agape.

 

The agape that is required has its prototype in the agape manifested by God, and therefore it must be spontaneous and unmotivated, uncalculating, unlimited, and unconditional. [Anders Nygren, Agape & Eros]

 

We are to love God fully, with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and not in a manner of condition on whether you perceive God as doing good to you or harm. Our love for Him is to be unconditional, in summer and in winter, in good times and bad, and always fully. It must be fully because we belong to Him. We do not originate it. It was given to us from Him and through fellowship with Him we walk in this love. Because of what it is, it casts out fear.

 

EPH 5:1-2

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

 

1JO 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.

 

The fear spoken of here is not a godly fear or a suitable reverence as from a son or daughter before a holy God. A holy fear is one of failing to please the Father by walking in darkness.

 

1PE 1:17

And if you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each man's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay upon earth;

 

HEB 12:28-29

Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence [caution, fear] and awe; for our God is a consuming fire.

 

The context of sinful fear indicates a tormenting fear, a slavish fear of a slave for a master, or of a criminal before a judge.

 

The divine love produced in the heart of the yielded saint includes the former [reverent fear] but not the latter [tormenting fear].

 

The fact that we can please the Father is frequent in the NT.

 

Will He smash me if I fail to please Him? No. Will He punish me if I fail to please Him? No. Divine discipline flows from God’s love and there is no punishment in love. That kind of policy is that of a tyrant. The Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. That is the policy of a Father, grace flowing from God’s infinite love. There is no greater motivation.