Mothers Reflect the Father's Love

The sixth sunday of easter (mother’s day)

Shepherd of the Hills Ev. Lutheran Church (WELS)

1 John 4:7-11

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (NIV)

You have so much to do over the course of a day that you wake up overwhelmed and you go to bed frustrated because you didn’t get it all done.  It sometimes feels like you don’t have a life.  It’s not that you don’t have things you want to do, it’s just that they always tend to be very low on the list of priorities.  What you wouldn’t give for a little time to read that book or catch up on your favorite show or go out with friends or… do absolutely nothing.  But you’ve gotten used to your interests taking a back seat to everything else.  Everyone else comes first.  It is not an exaggeration to say that your day is packed with so many things that literally will not get done if you don’t take care of them.  What’s more, being underappreciated comes with the territory as well.  And on top of that, you also double as the customer service department, receiving more daily complaints than you can even keep track of!  So the many “thank you’s” that you deserve to be hearing are replaced with complaints instead.  But it’s not about receiving recognition or acknowledgment for all that you do – you just do it because that’s who you are: you’re a mother.

To be fair, “Mother’s Day” doesn’t begin to cut it; you deserve “Mother’s Week” or “Mother’s Month,” if not more.  As far as human relationships go, I don’t know if there is a better example of selfless, self-sacrificing love than the example that mothers put on display on virtually a daily basis.  The bond of love that a mother has for her child is unique and truly unlike any other bond.  That unconditional love is what consistently drives a mother to do the unthinkable, the unreasonable, and the undesirable for her child.  From changing dirty diapers to wet bed sheets to canceling plans because of sick kids to working extra jobs to help pay for school to helping raise grandchildren – mothers do it all, and if you asked most of them why they do it, the answer would not be shocking: “I love my child.” Usually Valentine’s Day comes to mind first when we think of expressions of love and heart-themed decorations, but perhaps Mother’s Day would be every bit as appropriate, for nowhere else on earth do we see love like that of a mother for her child.

Yet as impressive and inspiring as a mother’s love is, when John makes his appeal to his hearers to love one another, it’s not a mother’s love he points to as an example, but a different source of love altogether: God’s love.  Now that doesn’t in any way downplay a mother’s love for her children; rather, I think it manages to speak volumes more to the depth of God’s love!  In other words, if the example of love on John’s mind is an example of love that surpasses that even of mother’s love for her children, it must be quite an impressive love!  And indeed it is.  So this morning, a day on which many of us will be going out to eat or making special plans to celebrate mothers – and rightly so! – we set the tone by celebrating God and his unparalleled love for us.  We’re thankful for mothers then, because in so many ways they help us begin to grasp the amazing love of God.  Yes, Mothers Reflect the Father’s Love.

It shouldn’t surprise us to find John as the author of the books of the Bible in which the connection between God and love is more clearly drawn out than anywhere else.  After all, John took special pride in being “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (e.g. Jn. 13:23; 21:7, 20), as he enjoyed referring to himself in his Gospel.  It is also in his Gospel that we come across what is arguably the most well-known and frequently-quoted passage of Scripture, John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”  Since the author of the Gospel of John and the author of  First, Second, and Third John is one and the same, we can better understand the theme of love taking the center stage in our verses this morning.  John knew and appreciated God’s love, and he certainly had a unique perspective from which to share it.

It is that unique and personal experience with God’s love that prompts John to encourage his readers to pass it on, to love one another.  From the very first word of verse seven that John uses in addressing his audience, he gives his audience a reminder of why they’re fit to love others: they themselves are loved.  The King James’ “beloved” is better than the NIV’s “Dear friends” in reflecting John’s address.  For it is not just dear friends to whom John is writing, but those who also are loved by God – fellow recipients of God’s love.  And who is better qualified to love one another than those who know God’s love firsthand?  Indeed it would be near impossible to pass on that of which a person had no knowledge or experience.  For me to encourage you to go out and show somebody how to sail would be quite difficult if you’ve never been sailing.  To be told to demonstrate to another how to plant a garden would be quite a challenge for you if you’d never grown a thing in your life. But John addresses believers in a way that reminds them they are qualified to love others, because they themselves are beloved. 

Furthermore, that title seeks to underscore that when we do love others, we’re merely passing along that which finds its source in God alone, for as John reminds us, “love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God” (v.7).  Does that help us to overcome what is often times a challenge in loving others?  We speak this way: “I have a hard time loving” or “I just can’t love so and so,” when the truth is, loving others is less about you or the other person, and more about God.  It’s not a matter of you “finding it in yourself” to love others, but rather passing along what comes only from God himself.  You are not the source of love, but merely a conduit, passing it along to others.  You cannot take credit for loving others well; neither should your life be wrought with guilt because you struggle so much to love others.  Don’t be so silly and foolish to think that the ability to love others comes from you – it doesn’t.  Love comes from God.

Last Sunday Jesus pointed out that branches cannot do a thing when cut off from the vine.  Believers can do nothing apart from Jesus, and that includes loving others.  There’s simply no native love in our hearts to pass along to others until God first puts it there.  You cannot love others the way God wants you to unless God is in you.  Love comes from God.

Doesn’t that explain why our society today has such a twisted and contorted idea of what love really is?  Should so many headlines and news stories shock us anymore?  Should we be so surprised that what the world calls “love” we cannot even recognize or identify as such?  Are we surprised that ending a life, whether by abortion or euthanasia, doesn’t resonate with us as “loving” when such repulsive actions clearly violate God’s command to love life?  Is it a shock that young and old alike cannot even distinguish between love and sex when they are portrayed as one and the same in our world today, regardless of the clear boundaries God has set?  Is it alarming to see parents not only allow defiant or disrespectful behavior in their children, but actually defend it under the guise of loving their children, when God’s take is that failure to discipline a child is actually showing hate to that child (Proverbs 13:24)?  It’s no wonder an unbelieving generation’s understanding of love is so woefully misguided, for love comes from God.

And if it people don’t recognize love from God, then how can they love others?  They can’t.  They can’t know that loving others involves much more than words – it involves actions.  John explains, “This is how God showed his love among us; He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins” (v.9,10).  See how it makes all the difference in the world to go beyond the spoken word and let love show itself through action!  Isn’t that what is so unique and special about mothers?  They do not mouth meaningless words that fail to touch our hearts when they say “I love you,” because those words are consistently backed by acts of service that clearly show love.  When he hears mom say, “I love you,” a son knows it to be true because mom keeps the pantry stocked with his favorite snacks when his buddies come over.  When she hears mom say, “I love you,” a daughter knows it because mom always makes sure her favorite outfits are clean when she needs them.  When he hears his bride say, “I love you,” a husband knows it because even though she’s worn out from putting others ahead of herself all day long, she is willing to give him the intimacy he so appreciates from his gift-from-God spouse.  When we hear mothers say, “I love you,” we know it’s true because they show it.

So when we hear God say “I love you,” we know it’s true because he showed it.  When John reminds us that the Father sent his Son into the world to give us life, it’s not just about where he went, but also what he left behind.  It’s one thing to enter into this veil of tears and be faced with the sickening reality of sin on a daily basis, but imagine how much worse it made matters when considering what he left behind!  Jesus left the perfect harmony of heaven.  He left things the way they should be for a world gone horribly wrong.  And he left the presence of the Father for the presence of the fallen. 

Yet as loving as that alone would have been, it was merely the beginning.  The real separation from his Father wasn’t just his leaving heaven to come to earth; no, the real separation came when Christ was completely and utterly cut off and forsaken by the Father while enduring all the brutality of an eternity in hell.  And, were such a punishment deserved, it would have been one thing, but it wasn’t!  It was for us that he was punished!  Our sins dragged him out of heaven and split him apart from the Father.  It was not enough to simply show us the way; he himself became the way.  He was the atoning sacrifice, the sacrifice by which we’ve been made “at-one” with God.  “This is how God showed his love among us…” (v.9).

Then see how John brings it all full-circle in verse eleven.  “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (v.11).  There’s more here than just, “Hey, since God loves you, you should love others, too.” John is referring back to the manner by which God showed his love to us, and imploring us to show that same kind of love to others – not an artificial or superficial kind of love, but a sacrificial, unconditional love.  For that is what God the Father showed us in Christ Jesus.  That is the kind of love God would have spill over from our lives into the lives of others.  How about starting today by showing that kind of love to your mother… for she’s a pretty good reflection of the Father’s love. Amen.

“For the freer confidence is from one’s own works, and the more exclusively it is directed toward Christ alone, so much better is the Christian it makes.” (Luther)