( 1 John 4, 13-21 ) - [ Deutsch ]
God's Essence is Love
How should we human beings speak of God?
If I were to ask you to draw me a picture of God, what would it look like? We would have many pictures to look at.
Children often draw an old man with a white ruffled beard. The dear God who sits on a cloud, on his throne, and from there takes care of man. For children such a picture is normal. In the course of time, this image of God changes. Hopefully.
Others paint pictures that we encounter in the Bible: God - the good shepherd, the hand, the rock, the king, the source and others.
We cannot see and touch God, we cannot give him shape.
Where people encounter God in the Bible, God is not visible: neither with Moses in the thorn bush, nor with the prophet Elijah in the silence, nor with Abraham in the three strangers.
I am who I am. That is God's name.
Yes, we human beings can try to describe God, say how we perceive him in our lives, but his essence, the ultimately characteristic, indispensable and unmistakable essence is much deeper.
So you could say it's very complicated, because our mind cannot grasp God.
With what can this be compared? Perhaps the best way is to try to imagine the most profound and moving event in your life so far. The one that touched you the most. An event that filled you with great happiness and satisfaction. And now the question: how could you describe it to another person who does not share this experience? It will be difficult, I think.
It is similar with God.
The Bible knows about this and tries to get closer to God again and again by telling us about such experiences of people with God.
You should not make an image of God for yourself, because you cannot. Every human image is too small, too simplistic, too stuck. And always something is missing. And again and again our image of God changes, because we grow older, because we have new experiences.
If we would take all our pictures together, our picture would be much bigger and still it would not hit the core.
John tries to paint his picture of God this way.
In 1 John's letter in the fourth chapter, verses 13-21 (NIV) he writes:
13 This is how we know that we live in him and He in us: He has given us of his Spirit.
14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world.
15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God.
16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgement: In this world we are like Jesus.
18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19 We love because he first loved us.
20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.
21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
What picture has John painted here? He has taken the strongest and most attractive picture available to us at all.
The essential, indispensable, unmistakable one that we can say is: God's essence is love.
Everyone knows what love is, and everyone has had experiences of it. Everyone agrees with me when I say that love is good.
It is very simple: whoever deals with God deals with love. No one can define love. Yes, dear congregation: it is the most beautiful mystery. God is the most beautiful mystery. God is love.
Why do I believe in God? Because He is love.
And all other images of God are expressions of God's love.
This is the realization of the Christian faith: that God loves us. This is what John is talking about here. Because the Father sent the Son as Saviour of the world.
Because of Jesus, because of a person, we say this: God's nature is love.
Jesus is the Son of God who blessed children, respected women and welcomed them into his community, sat at table with sinners and reached out to the sick, healing them in body and soul. God became man. His love became man.
In Him is shown what love is:
- Love is a relational event and saves people from isolation. It says "yes" to the other person.
- Love gives itself away in having time for another person.
- It forgives mistakes and wants the best for the other person.
- It happens only in freedom and grants freedom to the other person
- Love is always connected with pleasure. No one will say: yes, I love you, but I don't like to do it.
- Love does not say yes and amen to everything
- Love is not harmless, it is demanding. It wants to make us more capable of love for the good of people.
Dear congregation, I hope that this spirit was also noticeable at the Protestant Church Congress in Nuremberg. It ends today after 4 days. All events were determined by the theme. Now is the time. Hope. Do.
God gives us a share in his Spirit, which is love. By love we recognize that we are united with him and he remains united with us.
We are placed in this world, in our own place. Now. And yet we hope for God's kingdom to gain space. Among us. More and more. That we, who believe in God and thus in love, make a difference in the world. That we look at challenges, face them. That we talk about them, share our hope, but also take action. Do.
God is with us in everything we do with love. We are to trust in that.
John goes even further by talking about the day of judgement.
In this, love has reached its goal with us: on the day of judgement, we will be full of confidence.
For God, who is love, is the one we will meet then. Yes, it does matter whether we live love or not. We know what God wants from us. He is not the dear old God sitting half away dozing on a cloud. far away from me.
We have to face up to what we do. But the one who loves us is the judge who upholds us. The one who sets things right and who brings justice to those who suffer immensely in this world.
We are not to be afraid of this day of judgement.
God casts out all fear. That is what we should be: a church of the redeemed: free from fear, because nothing in this world can separate us from God, from His love. Not even death.
I wish we could live like this more often: redeemed, freed from these earthly constraints that bind us and make us afraid. To be free and flexible in our thoughts and actions, open and alive, so that we may reflect this love, which is God himself, in our lives.
I don't know anyone who does this all the time, but I know many in whom it comes out clearly from time to time, so that one can only stand in amazement and say: Yes, this person has seen God.
The commandment to love one's brother and sister has its reason in this: the certainty that God is with us.
Whoever has experienced God's love in this way can approach his brother and sister, can forgive more easily, argue with them and try to find the truth together with them. But one thing will always guide him: the knowledge that this person, this neighbour, with whom one has to do in whatever way, is also a beloved child of God.
We love because He first loved us.
Amen