Agape Love Brings Assurance of Salvation
1 John 3v19-20
17th March 2023
Over the last few weeks, we've been thinking about agape love. This is the sacrificial love of God, modelled by Jesus Christ and given to every Christian, although we all need to grow in it. Last week we saw that agape love must be practical, that a true Chrstian can't see his brother in Christ suffering without trying to help. John now says:
1 John 3v19-20a
This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest
in his presence,
whenever our hearts condemn us.
Every one of us sometimes does the wrong thing, says the wrong thing, fails to do the right thing. At those times, the enemy of our souls may come to us and say, "How can you call yourself a Christian? Dear oh dear oh dear." When this happens, this is how we set our hearts at rest: we know that we have a love for the brothers which goes beyond what is natural. Therefore, we know we're saved.
If you look around your church on a Sunday morning, there's all sorts of people with all sorts of backgrounds, and all sorts of educational attainment, and all sorts of attitudes and, to be honest, all sorts of sin. And you love all of them. You really want them all to be thoroughly blessed in Jesus and well provided for. Every one of us does. And that's because the agape love of God is in our hearts. And the reason the agape love of God in in our heart, it's because – and only because – you've been born again as a child of God.
Now and again, I do and say stupid things. Afterwards, I cry out to God, saying, "How can I still be this insensitive a person?" I expect you do the same sort of things sometimes. But we know we're saved, we know we're Christians, because we know there have been times when we have sacrificed, significantly, for other Christians. We know that we yearn for our brothers and sisters to be happy in Jesus and to have everything they need. You know that, if you discovered that one of your more vulnerable or elderly fellow Christians had gone without food, say, you'd be devastated, because the agape love of God is in your heart.
So, although we're far from perfect, we can set our hearts at rest in God. We know we are are truly redeemed, truly His, and He is still working on us, and has not given up on us, because we love our brothers and sisters.
1 John 3v20b
For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.
God knows you. He knows all your insecurity. He knows all your negative thoughts. He knows all your regrets about the things you said and did that you really shouldn't have. And He still calls you His child. He knows you're not the person you want to be yet, but He still wants to be your father, and He always will. He will never leave you or forsake you.
He has put the agape love of God in your heart, and He rejoices when it comes to the surface and you make a difference for a brother or a sister. God loves you. God includes you. God forgives you. God assures you that because you love your brothers and sisters, a motley crew though they are, this proves you're His. This proves you're precious in His sight. And He is utterly committed to you.