Christianity Without Love Is Not Christianity At All

Reverend Leo H. McCrary II

If anyone should be spreading love in a time like now it is the Christian. The child of God must be committed to living according to God’s way.

Introduction

If God is love, shouldn’t His children be love also?  You see, a “Christian” moving without love is one moving opposite of the way of Christ.  Those who live in opposition to the way of Christ is known as a sinner. In 1 John 4:7-21, John shared a message that should cause modern Christians to examine their way, and what lies within their heart.

Understanding the Way of God

If you say that you believe in God, you ought to be putting forth the effort to move according to His way.  Throughout this passage of scripture, John makes it clear that God’s way is one of love.  We must understand what God’s love is because His love differs from our idea of love.

John summed up God’s love in 1 John 4:9-10 by speaking of the grace that God has shown us.  You see, God gave the world His only begotten Son, which means God gave all He had as there is no other Son of God.  Let’s also understand that Jesus was God in the flesh, born of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35).  Jesus is God as God is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So, you should understand that God gave Himself to the world!

Now, why God gave Himself to the world should also be understood as it adds great depth to His love. John wrote, “God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.”  John spoke of living spiritually, in the soul. 

Without Christ, mankind would be dead, spiritually, due to its trespasses against God (Eph. 2:1-3).  Mankind’s iniquities (wicked nature) separates him from God because God will never dwell with sin (Is. 59:2). So, being dead in trespasses means that one is condemned to living apart from God. Such a state of living is what awaits the sinner for everlasting life.

God created man with the desire of dwelling with mankind forever.  Genesis 1:26 shows us that God created mankind in His image and likeness, being holy and righteous, so that He could dwell with mankind.  However, mankind sinned in the garden, temporarily setting back God’s dwelling with mankind.

So, God gave Himself so that man could meet His standards through faith as the offering of Christ atones for our sins and reconciles our relationship with Him (Col. 1:19-23).  How many of us would be willing to lay down our live to reconcile mankind’s relationship with the Lord? How many of us would be willing to give our children to reconcile mankind’s relationship with the Lord? This shows the depth of love that God has for us.  

To add more depth to God’s love is the fact that God loved us when we were dead in our trespasses. God loved mankind when man rejected Him. To this day, God is still rejected by the majority of this world! Yet, the Lord still loves the world and gives mankind repeated opportunities to turn away from sin. God’s love is unmerited and unconditional.

Moving According to God’s Grace

In 1 John 4:11, John reasoned, “If God loved us [in such a great manner], we also ought to love one another [likewise].”  This should be the Christian motto to live by.

To believe in God is to believe in grace, mercy, forgiveness, and salvation.  To believe in God is to believe in the same faithfulness God has for us.  Because we believe in God, we should move faithfully in His manner.  Christians should have a willingness to forgive and to uplift.  Christians should be faithful to their neighbor!

John’s sharing of this message is based on what Jesus taught him and the other apostles about love.  In Matthew 5:43-48, Jesus called on His disciples to be “sons” of the Father.  Jesus said to love your enemies, bless those who curse you, and do good to those who hate you.

Jesus didn’t stop there.  Jesus called on His disciples to pray for those who use them and persecute them.  Jesus asked, “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you?  Jesus asked, “If you greet your brethren only, what do you more than others?”

Jesus pointed out to His disciples that they would be doing nothing differently from the tax collectors if that’s how they would choose to carry themselves.  The tax collectors, by the way, we’re thought of as wicked sinners.  So, in essence, Jesus was saying that if we consider ourselves as a child of God, we ought to carry ourselves according to a higher standard – the standard of God’s love.

John’s desire was for God to be seen through the actions of the Christian believer (1 John 4:12-16).  This wasn’t just John’s desire but also the desire of Christ.  This desire of Christ was one repeated throughout New Testament scripture.  It is also a desire that should be preached throughout churches today.

Is God Seen In Our Actions?

In 1 John 4:17, John spoke of how if we move in love, love would be perfected in us and we’d be able to stand boldly before the Lord in the day of judgment.  

Here is where self-examination begins.  We have to seriously consider whether or not God is being seen through our actions today.  Personally, I always think of how I can do better.  You see, the beauty of faith is that faith is always about growing, improving, becoming better.

As a whole, I have great concern for those who proclaim Christ today, but their actions don’t show such proclamation.  Today is, honestly, no different than yesterday for those who love to proclaim their Christianity.

John wrote this epistle because fellowship within the house of believers needed to grow and improve.  Something that is repeatedly shown throughout the epistles of Paul, Peter, and John is that love was going cold within the Christian community.  

For example, in Paul’s letters to the Ephesian and Galatian churches, he wrote about divisions occurring within the churches.  The Jewish Christians looked down on Gentile believers, believing the Gentiles weren’t worthy of God’s grace.  Then, on the other hand, there were Jews who strictly lived by the law that also hindered early Christians.

In the Revelation of Christ, the church of Ephesus was rebuked by Christ because their love had gone cold and they needed to find passionate love again (Rev. 2:2-5).  The Laodicean church lacked zeal entirely, and Jesus told them that they needed to care, to find some passion and fire (Rev. 3:15,19).

My concern about the professed believer today is that they are too quick to condemn rather than to move out of love.  The professed believer is quick to be a bible thumper, condemning the sins of others, but won’t examine themselves nor move out of the mercy and grace God has shown them.

Jesus taught that we are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves (Matt. 22:37-39).  John, rightly, pointed out that there is no fear in love and that perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18).  There are too many professed believers who give in to fear and move out of fear, rather than move out of grace.

One has to be very careful about fear.  Fear opens us up to so many unhealthy spirits that won’t do anybody any good.  Fear can lead to stress and anxiety, causing one to see and believe things that aren’t true.  One consumed by fear will act irrationally and immorally.

Many professed believers have been led astray by fearmongers to live by a different gospel that is not of God’s love.  In this other gospel that many are choosing to live by today, they are choosing to despise those who are different.  This is not new, as there have been many so-called believers who, for centuries, have said they believe in God, but their actions have been to move against others.

In 1 John 4:20-21, John wrote that those who profess to love God but hate his fellow man is a liar, as the command is that he who loves God must love his fellow man also.  One who professes to be a Christian, a child of God, but is absent of sincere love, is one who is lost, not knowing who they are because they don’t know God.

If you think for one second that God would support the actions of tearing down, rather than uplifting, you truly are lost.  I believe it is incredibly important for us to examine ourselves in this moment because our righteousness hangs on whether or not we are love.