Love is a Laid Down Life (1 John 4:1-16)                                                                                      2009.02.15    Dr. George Fox

 What is Christian love?  What makes it so distinctive and dynamic?  We read that God is love, and out of that love, He gave His only son for us.

Nowadays, we are facing economic crises; people are even taking their own lives over their financial situations.  CEO’s of large companies, billionaires, investors who lost millions or were disgraced—some are forfeiting life, either by committing suicide or by withdrawing into oblivion. Naturally, we don’t emulate or respect them or want to follow their examples.  But in the New Testament, we see an entirely different way of laying down life.

As we see in 1 John 3:16, the phrase “to lay down one’s life” is unique to John, also appearing in his gospel.  It is the evidence of selfless, strong, spiritual, God-like love: that he laid down his life for us. 

In his gospel, John is writing not a strict biography, but a thesis—that Jesus is the Christ, and that He lay down His life for us voluntarily.  In John 10:15, 17, and 18, He says repeatedly: “I lay down my life.”  Jesus wants to show that He is freely giving up His life as a sacrifice.  John takes great pains to develop this theme.  In John 12:27 and 13:21, Jesus is “troubled,” facing His painful end on the cross.  It’s not at all an easy thing for Him to go through with this self-sacrifice.  In Gethsemane, Luke writes that Jesus sweat drops like blood in His internal agony (Luke 22:44).  In John 18, Jesus is arrested, and when He could have escaped (consider Matt. 26:53), He says instead “Shall I not drink the cup my Father has given me?”  In the next chapter, Pilate examines Jesus, and when Jesus does not answer his questions, Pilate says, “Don’t you know I have the power to crucify or release you?”  Jesus says, “You can have no power over me unless it were given you from above.”  Once more we see how Jesus is totally committed to dying on our behalf—no one can snatch away his life.  In 19:30, He “gave up his spirit.”  To the end, it was a free, voluntary yielding up of His life. 

Having demonstrated in his gospel that Jesus laid down His life for us freely, John writes in his first epistle, “By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us.”  Look quickly at Phil. 2:6-8.  Though Jesus was equal with God and at the same time fully human, He “emptied himself,” that is, He relinquished His prerogatives and rights as the Son of God.  He was born humbly, in a stable, and lived a poor man; He left the exact timing of His death up to the Father and submitted to being abused and put to death.

In the first century, Christians were marked by their selfless love for one another, so that pagans noticed and wondered at it.  We ought to be able to lay down our lives for each other—to relinquish things for our brother and sister.  What would that look like? 

In 1 Cor. 9, Paul talks about rights—the right to have a nice life, to have a spouse, to take breaks from work, and to be paid for our work, which are all reasonable and proper.  And then he says, “You know what?  I relinquish these things, for the sake of the gospel.  Can you relinquish any of your rights for the sake of the church?” 

We should also be willing to lay our life on the line for Jesus’ sake.  In Acts 15 Paul and Barnabas were distinguished as men “who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Are you willing to stick out your neck for Jesus Christ, to have a reputation as someone who stands up for Him? 

Thirdly, we need to get rid of selfish ambition.  Phil. 2, Paul describes Timothy as a person who will take genuine care of others, considering them as important as himself, compared to those who seek their own interests.  We certainly often seek our own, rather than sincerely interesting ourselves in the concerns of others.  In the same passage, Paul writes of Epaphroditus and how he was ill almost to death, yet disregarded his own life in serving the churches as a messenger.  Also see the example of Epaphras (Col 1:7, 4:12-13), who prayed fervently for others.  Do you intercede faithfully for other people?  Think of how many are losing their jobs and homes, going through hard times. 

These are all the things that characterize a person who is laying down his life for others.  Let this mind be in you, which was in Christ Jesus, who laid down his life for you.  That is the distinctive dynamic of godly love.