The Essence of Christian Faith is Love

11/16/25

Message; “The Essence of Christian Faith is Love.”

Scriptures: Psalm 23, John 10:7-18 and 1 John 3:11-24

Psalm 23

(1) The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.

(2) He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters,

(3) he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

(4) Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

(5) You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

(6) Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

John 10:7-18

(7) Therefore Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. (8) All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 

(9) I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture.

(10) The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

(11) “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 

(12) The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 

(13) The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

(14) “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me– 

(15) just as the Father knows me and I know the Father–and I lay down my life for the sheep. 

(16) I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. (17) The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life–only to take it up again. 

(18) No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I

received from my Father.”

1 John 3:11-24

Love One Another

(11) This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 

12) Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. 

(13)Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. 

(14) We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 

(15) Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.

(16)This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 

(17) If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 

(18) Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 

(19) This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence 

(20) whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 

(21) Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God

(22) and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. 

(23) And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 

(24) Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.

This is the word of God, for the people of God. Thanks be to God.

 We all know that there are certain physical characteristics that are totally unique to each individual. Your fingerprints, for example, are entirely unique—no one else has fingerprints exactly like yours. The pattern of your iris, the colored part of your eye, is totally unique. So is your DNA. But did you know that your heartbeat is completely unique too? Every person on earth has a different heartbeat pattern, or “cardiac signature.” Your cardiac signature can’t be altered or disguised. So, if someone can measure your “cardiac signature,” they can identify you, even in a big crowd of people.

 In fact, and this is pretty scary to me, the Pentagon appropriated funds to have a laser built that can identify people by their heartbeat from 600 feet away. There are positive uses for this technology, of course. Doctors could monitor your heart’s health from far away. This laser could also be used to track criminals or terrorists from long distances away. But, again, for those of

us concerned about privacy, the thought is a little disconcerting. 

 Did you ever imagine that your physical heartbeat, your “cardiac signature”could be so distinctive?

 Our epistle lesson was written to encourage believers to be more loving toward one another and to those in need. If we can’t do that, John tells us, we’ve missed the very heart of the faith that Christ gave us.

 I was reading a story about a dad who had a conversation with his pastor, whose son asked him a question and he wasn’t sure how to respond. He told him his son asked him, “Dad, what is the toughest thing God ever tried to do?”

 The pastor responded by saying. “Now the Bible has given me answers to a lot of questions, but it has never exactly covered this one. So, let me ask you. What do you think it was?” The father said, “Since taking science in school, I thought the creation of the world might be the hardest thing God ever tried to do, and in Sunday school we got to talking about some of the miracles, and I thought the resurrection might be the toughest thing God ever tried to do.

 But, after thinking about it some more, I decided that the toughest thing God ever had to do is to get us to understand who He is and that He loves us.”

 I tell you this story because I think that dad was onto something. I believe he gave his son the perfect answer. “The toughest thing God ever had to do is to get us to understand who He is, and that He loves us.” Jesus tackled this job, this kind of questioning when he was confronted by the Pharisees in our Gospel reading today in John 10. 

 In Psalm 23 David writes how God handles His toughest job. In Genesis we’re told that we were made in the image of God. So our toughest job is the same as God’s. To get others to understand who God is and to let other’s

recognize that He loves us. To understand that is to know that, “The Essence of Christian faith is love.”

The definition of essence, according to Webster’s dictionary is: The basic, real, and invariable nature of a thing or its significant individual feature or features.

 We don’t need a laser or any advanced technology to tell us what a Christian’s “cardiac signature” should look like. Our scripture lesson for this morning, from 1 John 3: 11-24 makes that clear. The heartbeat of the Christian is to love others with the sacrificial love of Jesus. Not a warm and fuzzy feeling. Not with good intentions or encouraging words. But with loving

actions. Actions that cost us something. As verse 18 reads, “. . . let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” Talk is cheap, the writer of this passage is saying. Real love is costly.

 So let’s take this opportunity to get to the heart of the toughest job God has ever tried to do.

 First: How did God get us to understand who He is? First through the Law and the prophets. And then through coming to us in the flesh, in the person of Jesus Christ. 

 And second: How did God get us to understand that He loves us? By giving His Son to die on the cross and rise again to save us from the penalty of sin and death.John, the disciple of Jesus who wrote these verses, knew that if he didn’t make it perfectly clear, what God’s love, Christian love looks like, we would try to define it for ourselves. He doesn’t give us that option. In verse 16, he writes, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”

 That is…. “The Essence of Christian faith is love.” Our “cardiac signature”.

That’s our message today. That is where we begin today. The first verse in 1John 3, John attempts to help us understand who God is. When he writes… “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” And that is what we are!

 The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. He goes on in 3:11: “This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.” In 3:16 he states: “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.” Then in 3:18 he writes: “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”

That’s the Gospel! That’s, “The Essence of Christian Faith.” To love with actions and truth.

 Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to love, is it? It isn’t always easy to love. We tend to withhold love until someone passes our “approval test.”

 We love those who we think are deserving of our love—which is exactly the opposite of Jesus’ love. He didn’t love us because we were easy to love or we deserved it. He loves us with the very love of God.

 Charles Shultz, creator and author of the Peanuts cartoon characters often conveyed a message in his comic strips. In one strip he conveys through Charlie Brown the need we have to be loved and through Lucy, our inability to love one another.

 Charlie Brown and Lucy are leaning over the proverbial fence speaking to one another:

 Charlie Brown starts the conversation by saying: All it would take to make me happy is to have someone say he likes me.

Lucy response: Are you sure?

Charlie Brown replies : Of course I’m sure!

Lucy: You mean you’d be happy if someone merely said he or she likes you? Do you mean to tell me that someone has it within his or her power to make you happy merely by doing such a simple thing?

 Yes! Charlie Brown declares. That’s exactly what I mean!

Lucy: Well, I don’t think that’s asking too much. I really don’t. (Now standing face to face, Lucy asks one more time) But you’re sure now? All you want is to have someone say, “I like you, Charlie Brown,” and then you’ll be happy?

Charlie Brown exclaims : And then I’ll be happy!

Lucy: (Lucy turns and walks away saying) I can’t do it!

 What Lucy cannot do, sinful as she is, God does. What Charlie Brown needs, lost and alone as he is, God supplies. God loves you and is telling you today, “He loves you!” “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.”

 Just as Christ laid down his life for us, so ought we to lay down our lives for others. That means loving all people, even those who misuse us, and that means doing good to all people, even those whom we may not approve of, and that means leaving our comfort zone from time to time for acts of extraordinary concern. 

“The Essence of Christian Faith is Love.” We can see how this is desperately needed in what is happening in our country today.

 There are two things we need to realize, to remember. The first is: Love is our primary witness to the world! How will the world know we’re Christians? By our love. If the day comes when the Christian church is as loving as God, the world will beat a path to our door. John asks, “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?” (3:17). The answer is, it isn’t.

 Love is more than just an emotion or a feeling. Love is feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned. And yes even, Forgiving the actions of others with opposing political and cultural view points. Love is not a passive verb, but an active one. And it is the primary way we share Christ with the world. Love is our primary witness to the world! As the

saying goes, “People don’t care how much we know until they know how much we care.” 

 But there’s one thing more that we need to see. Love is a gift from God. 

In my travels this pass week I saw a bumper sticker that read:

“Perform an unnatural act—love somebody.” And it’s true. Pure love is not an attribute of humanity, but of God. Our nature is to strive for survival, to strive for our own well-being. God’s nature is self- giving love. The closer we are to God, the better able we are to love others. John writes, “And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.” That

Spirit is love.

 There is an old episode of the TV show “The Twilight Zone” in which a gambler dies. He wakes up in a room full of gaming tables. And no matter what game he plays, he wins. A gambler’s dream comes true! This must be heaven!

But as the gambler goes from table to table, winning every game easily, he comes to realize that he didn’t wind up in heaven at all, but in hell. You see, he had everything he ever wanted, but he didn’t have anyone to share his winnings with.

 Love is a gift God gives to us. And it is multiplied and magnified when we can give it away, when we can love others with the same sacrificial love that God showed to us.

 The words John wrote centuries ago are still true for us today, “And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he commanded us.” When the love of God truly abides in our heart, we are able to look into the faces of others and see God’s face. As John wrote in verse 18: ”Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”

 Love is the essence of Christian faith. Love is our primary witness to the world. Love is a gift from God. We love because God first loved us. Only as we abide in God can His love abide in us.

 The toughest thing God ever had to do is to get us to understand who He is and that He loves us. And that is our job in this world today.

“Let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” 

Remember!! “The Essence of Christian Faith is Love.”

“Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.”

In His Service,

Pastor Joe