Pursuing Veritas

This post originated as a message at Arise Church.

I love the Avengers (and the whole OG Marvel Cinematic Universe, to be honest). I love it so much that I saw this movie twice on opening day: once at midnight with my college buddies and then again later that afternoon with my family. I love the storytelling, I love the connections between the films, I love the heroes, and I love the blend of the fun and the meaningful….

This scene from the OG Avengers raises an important question—one that the MCU doesn’t really address, but one that each of us has to answer—what is a god? Or maybe better stated, who is God? What is God like? Is God like Loki and Thor? Is God an angry vengeful tyrant? Does He hate certain people? Does He bless others? Is He silent? Is God even real?  Who is God?

That’s the question we’re going to be talking about in this post—and over the next couple weeks—as part of our series God Is. There are lots of competing and confusing ideas out there about God and the goal of this series is to help us understand—just a little bit better—who God is and what He has done in our world. Because if there’s an ultimate power in the universe, doesn’t it make sense to spend some time learning about who it is and what it’s like?

As Christians seek to follow God, many of us rely on this thing called the Bible—a collection of writings by the People of God, passed down over the centuries as God’s message to those who follow Him. And each Sunday, as we gather together, we’ll spend some time looking at the Bible—the Scriptures, as they’re also called—to help us understand and apply God’s messages for us…. In this post, we’re going to look at a passage that tells us some really important things about who God is, a passage that comes from a letter called 1 John:

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does now know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the [appeasement] for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; [but] if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. (1 John 4.7-12 ESV)

In this passage, John is talking about love. And the love being talked about here isn’t emotional, romantic love, but relational, interpersonal love. Now, there are really two relationships that John wants us to see. The first is the love between people: Beloved, let us love one another. This is the love we’re familiar with: I love my wife, I love my kids, I love the Blues, and I love you (or at least, most of you). BUT, John says, this love doesn’t stand on its own; rather, love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. That is, our “person to person love” is a result of another kind of love—the love that God has for us. Not just that, but John tells us that God Himself—in His very essence, at the center of who He is—God is love.

This is the key here, the core idea that we need to grasp in order to understand this passage and to understand who God is. God is love. Who is God? He’s love.  Now, you may have heard this before, but I don’t want us to rush past what John is saying here…. This should be something of a surprise to you. God is love. He’s NOT power; He’s NOT intelligence; He’s NOT a sage and witty Morgan Freeman; He’s NOT a cosmic genie in the sky who wants you to find happiness in life; He’s NOT a calculating computer; He’s NOT a wizened old man who’s losing His mind; He’s not Chris Hemsworth, musclebound and enthroned as king in a distant dimension. God. Is. Love.

It’s not just that He is loving—that He performs actions that are kind and compassionate. It’s not just that He loves others—that He thinks and acts towards others in nice, kind ways. God IS love. It’s who is He is—He’s love. God is love in himself. He is the definition of love.

In today’s world, it’s easy to get a distorted picture of love. You might think of love as desire—a feeling connected to romance and passion. Or you might think of love as a facade—there’s no real love for others in the world, only power and money and people trying to take advantage of one another. Maybe you think that love should be whatever someone wants it to be—whatever a person feels is right or whatever sounds woke enough for the present moment. Or maybe you think of love as something that only certain people get to experience—that perhaps you’re unlovable or that you’ve messed up so much in life that no one (let alone God) could ever love you…. But those are all distortions, they’re all false narratives about love—they’re all incomplete pictures of love.

Because God IS love. You’ve never seen anyone who is love. You’ve met people who are loving; you’ve interacted with people who’ve loved you; chances are that you’ve experienced love. But we’ve never met anyone who is love. My wife Hayley is loving—she puts up with me every day, God bless her; but she’s not love. My snuggly year-old-son Judah is very loving—but he’s not love. Even my dear, sweet, sacrificial grandmother Lois—a supremely loving saint on earth if there ever was one—even Grandma isn’t love, even Grandma doesn’t hold a candle to the love of God.

How do we know this? Well, John goes on to tell us in verses 9 and 10: In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the [appeasement] for our sins. John is saying that we know God is love because of what He’s done—because He sent His Son Jesus to earth to die for us. That is love, John says. But what exactly does that mean?

I don ‘t cry during movies—or at least, I used to not cry during movies, not at home and certainly not when watching them in public. (Remember when we used to do that, watch movies in this thing called a theater?) Well, the older I get, the more that’s no longer the case—you might catch me tearing up now and then with a movie. But man, if Avengers Endgame didn’t set some sort of personal record for tears shed during a movie by yours truly. If by some chance you still haven’t seen the highest grossing film of all time yet, spoiler alert here, but there’s the moment during the final battle when Iron Man (Tony Stark) realizes that he needs to die so that Thanos can be truly defeated—and then he sacrifices himself so everyone else can live…. That’s what love looks like. That’s love.

But more than any fictional character has ever loved another fictional character, God loved us—God loved YOU so much that He sent His only Son to die in your place. This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. (1 John 3.16) If you don’t know this story, that’s okay—let me summarize it for you. In the beginning, God created an earth that was good. But humanity came along and messed it up, making it chaotic and broken. So God sent His Son, a guy named Jesus, to live a perfect life and be tortured and die on a cross. Because He didn’t deserve it, Jesus’ sacrifice broke the power of death and He rose from the dead. He’s now king—you’ll hear me say that a lot, He’s King Jesus—and He will someday come again to raise those who follow Him from the dead and restore creation back to its good state. We’ll talk more about this story in the weeks to come, but the main takeaway is that God sent His Son—King Jesus—to die so that you and I can live!

That’s who we believe as followers of Jesus: not a god who’s distant and unreachable, not a god who beams in from another planet now and then; but a God who loves us so much that He stepped into this world to live with us, suffer with us, and die for us to show us a new way to be truly human.  So, who is God?  God is love.

Now, if that’s who God is, what does that mean for us? Maybe you’re sitting here wondering, “so what?” If God really and truly is love, what does that mean for you? What does that mean for me?

Well, if you’re reading this and you already know King Jesus, John has a pretty clear takeaway for you: Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (v.11) Because God has loved us, we should respond by loving other people. Because it’s by loving others that we get to share in who God is. If you’re a follower of Jesus, your job isn’t to condemn other people—it’s to love people. To love your neighbor as yourself. (Mark 12.31) To do what is just, to show constant love, and to live in humble fellowship with God. (Micah 5.8, GNT) To do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility to consider others better than yourself. (Philippians 2.3) To love people—regardless of how they look, think, act, vote, smell, or carry themselves. Because if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

Or maybe you’re reading this and you’re not sure where you stand with God or this Jesus guy…. Maybe you’re not sure if God is love, because He hasn’t seemed very loving to you…. Maybe you’re not sure if God is trustworthy…. Or maybe you’ve got questions about who God is…. If that’s you, let me encourage you to keep asking those questions. Figuring out this God-thing is tough; I invite you to join the conversation here at Arise. We don’t have all the answers, but we’re here to surround you with love and support you as you figure out your questions. One of the best ways to find answers to your doubts or questions is to learn alongside other people. If you want some companions, we’re here to take the journey with you.

Or maybe you’re reading this and you’re in the place I found myself several years ago…. You see, I grew up in the Church; I was raised by good Lutheran parents and went to Christian schools as a kid. But eventually, I realized that I had more questions than answers about God and about all of these people on earth who were claiming to follow Him. Sure, it all sounded good when I was in church—but throughout the rest of the week? Who knew? It didn’t seem like God loved me or wanted anything to do with me—He seemed more preoccupied with giving people rules, telling people how to vote, or justifying things that didn’t seem quite right. And so I had a lot of questions and doubts about if God was good, or just, or trustworthy, or even real.

But then, one Sunday, I was sitting in the very back row of the church that my parents dragged me to (again). And to this day, not sure that I ever fully stopped believing in God—but even if I did, He never stopped loving me. And on that Sunday, I decided to give following Jesus a chance…. Now, my questions and doubts didn’t go away; I still ask questions and I still wrestle with some things that Scripture says (like just this past week while I was reading a book called Deuteronomy). But I found enough faith to follow King Jesus—to pledge my allegiance to Him—as I tried to figure things out…. Maybe you’re here this morning and you need to do the same thing—to take a step of faith, to find a ray of hope amidst your doubts, to accept God’s love for you.

Because God is love—and He loves you. He really and truly does—no matter your background, no matter what you’ve done in your past, no matter if you’ve walked away from Him, no matter if you’ve done terrible things. He loves you—will you accept that love? Will you accept His forgiveness? Will you let Him love you? Will you love Him back?

If you want to follow the God who is love, do it. Take that step. Begin that journey—or get back on course. Simply take a moment—right now—to talk to Him in prayer. It can be in your head and heart or it can be out loud. Remember: God is love. And He loves you.