Sunday, July 5, 2009
Attributes of God
The Love of God (2)
Last week, we began by addressing the
love of God. The Bible has
plenty to say about the love of God. Primarily we notice 1 John 4:8
which says, “God is love.”
That means that He is the essence of what true Christian love (agape) is
about. We also noted that
the love of God is demonstrated first in the sending of His Son to die
for us. It is also seen in His mercy, grace, and longsuffering.
As well, His love is revealed to us in the presentation of His
word, His chastening and His promises of what is yet to come.
Today we want to
examine what our response is to His love.
a.
His
love is eternal –I am
convinced that even before God created the world, He was love.
In fact, AS He created the world He so loved us.
We know that because there was a plan in place even before the
foundations of the world (Eph. 1:4, “Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world…”;
3:11 – [the church] “according to
His eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord”
). In Jeremiah 31:3 we read,
“The Lord has appeared of old to
me, saying: ‘Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore
with lovingkindness I have drawn to you.’”
This was spoken to the families of Israel.
The word “everlasting” generally means a long period of time and
can look backward (cf. Psa. 90:2).
We know that Jehovah God loved Israel BEFORE they became a great
nation. They were in His
plans from the beginning.
Furthermore, consider that if His love were not eternal, He could have
just wound up the world and let it go.
But instead He loves us and did all that He did out of that love.
b.
His
love is unconditional – 1
John 4:10 says, “Not that we loved
God, but that He loved us.”
That is, it is not based on worldly attainments (power, wealth,
fame, etc.) for He gives to all mankind alike (cf. Matt. 6:32 – He knows
what you need), the sun rises on good and evil alike (Matt. 5:45).
Furthermore, salvation is available to ALL!
c.
His
love is sovereign -
Sovereign means that God’s reign is supreme and unquestionable.
He has permanent authority.
This sovereignty is true of His love as well.
The point is that God, being our Creator was not obligated to
love us – but He did. 1 John
4:19 says He first loved us.
But let us not forget that His love is NOT challengeable by us.
This is something we need to be grateful for, because of the way
behave at times (and the way mankind in general behaves) we certainly
don’t deserve His love. But
He loves us anyway!
d.
His
love is infinite - we
cannot out love God, nor can we exhaust His love.
All we can do is try to emulate it to the best of our abilities.
Ephesians 2:4 speaks of, “His GREAT love with which He loved us.”
Ephesians 3:18-19 says that when Christ dwells in our hearts we are
rooted and grounded and “may be
able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and
depth and height – to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge;
that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
Paul tells us in Romans 8:35-39 that NOTHING can separate us from His
love.
e.
His
love is unchanging – James
1:17 says, “Every good gift and
perfect gift is from above, and come down from the Father of lights,
with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”
That which makes God – God is unchangeable, which includes His
love. Man sometimes lets God
down and quits loving Him as he ought to.
But God keeps loving us which is why He is willing to forgive us
when we turn back to Him.
He loves us the way that Jesus loved us as recorded in John 13:1, “He
loved them to the end.”
a.
1 John
4:19 –
we love Him back.
The better we understand the love
of God toward us, the more we ought to love Him back.
But what does it mean to love Him?
Think of the word AGAPÉ.
We need to CARE about Him enough to sacrifice for Him.
Realizing all that God has done ought to prick the heart and move
us to serve Him and CARE more about those things He cares about than the
things of the world (cf. 1 John 2:15-17 – it IS the word agapé).
We ought to be
eternally grateful to Him because He loved us and humbled by
what He was willing to do for us.
When we appreciate Him as we
ought to, we will strive to give Him the greatest portion we can
of the type of love He has given us.
(NOTE: Remember how Genesis
1:27 tells us that we have been created in the image of God – let us
strive to emulate that image as greatly as possible)
AT first, loving God may not be something we fully understand, (possibly
we are driven by fear or some other emotion instead – cf. 4:17-18) but
in time, as we grow to a fuller understanding of His love, we adapt our
lives accordingly. In
essence, we strive to love the way that He loves.
NOTE: Some manuscripts do not include the word Him thus it reads, “We
love, because he first loved us.”
This is an equally true statement as we shall see what loving God
involves. But, as we shall
ALSO see, we MUST love Him – and it does emanate from His love.
In fact, the context speaks of loving God (see vs. 20-21).
1 John 4:16 says, “And we have
known and believed the love that God has for us.
God is love, and he who
abides in love abides in God, and God in him.”
b.
We
have to love others –
i.
We have
frequently noted that the Christian life is about serving others.
There is no way around it.
Philippians 2:3-4 tells us we must think about the interest of
others.
ii.
We will
love our enemies – Matthew
5:43-48. NOTE in vs. 48, “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”
Think of how God loved us!
iii.
We will
love our neighbor – NOT just
the pleasant ones, but all of them.
Consider: 1 John 4:7-8 says, “Beloved,
let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is
born of God and knows God.
He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
James 2:8-9 calls loving our neighbors the royal law.
He also indicates that this means we do NOT show partiality.
iv.
We will
love our brethren -
There are many reasons to love our brethren.
Emulating the love of God is one of the strongest reasons.
We ARE a family and we MUST act like it!
The surrounding contexts of the statement “God is love” are pointing
primarily to how we treat each other as brethren.
1 John 4:7-11 bears this out.
So does 1 John 4:20-21, but even stronger.
It emphatically states that if we DON’T love our brethren and
claim to love God we are liars.
John 13:34-35 – Jesus taught His disciples that we learn to love one
another the way that He loved us.
What this tells me is that if I am going to please God I HAVE TO learn
to love my brethren. This is
not always easy, but it is ALWAYS necessary!
c.
We
keep His commandments –
Do you ever wonder why we are so strict when it comes to obeying the
commandments of God? The
reason is that our obedience shows how much we love God.
Loving God is not just about some feeling you have in the pit of your
stomach or in your heart (though in time affection should be there) it
is about reverence and respect for Him and His commandments.
You love Him and you obey Him.
2 John 6 says, “This is love, that
we walk according to His commandments.
This is the commandment, that as you have heard from the
beginning, you should walk in it.”
1 John 2:3-6 bears this out noting that when we keep His word, the love
of God is perfected in us.
1 John 5:2-3 says, “By this we
know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His
commandments. For this is
the love of God, that we keep His commandments.
And His commandments are not burdensome.”
What is it that makes His commandments NOT burdensome?
It is not the difficulty of the task, but rather our attitude.
It is about how much we care for God.
When you truly love someone, you are willing to do whatever needs
to be done WITHOUT complaining.
d.
We
will tell others about His love
– this is not something we can keep to
ourselves.
The greater we love God, the more difficult it will be to keep it to
ourselves. Our hearts will
burn within us (Luke 42:32), His love will compel us (2 Cor. 5:14).
Just like all those examples of rejoicing at salvation in scripture.
e.
We
will obey the gospel if we have not done so
–
We believe in Him – John 3:16
We are willing to repent of our sins – Romans 2:4 says, “Or
do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and
longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to
repentance.”
We confess Him as the Son of God – Matthew 10:32,33
We are baptized into His death -
Romans 6:3,4.
BUT let us never forget that love is NOT all God is about.
As we continue our study we will see more of His attributes.