“We love God because He first loved us.”
No one will argue with the suggestion in our title that God's love is great. The love that we are referring to is agape (ah-gah-pay) love, which is the Greek word translated as love in our text and in other texts like John 3:16. It is the Greek word always used in New Testament references to God's love. Love really is great, especially as it is revealed in the New Testament. This article will explain what I mean. God loves us We need to be careful not to say this too glibly or take it too lightly. It is amazing that the God of the whole universe loves us. Think of the misery if God had chosen to hate us instead of loving us. If you are like me, you do not want to think of the alternative. We would not have John 3:16 in the Bible about God loving the world so much that He gave “His only begotten Son” so that we could be saved. We would not have 1 John 4:8b in the Bible: “For God is love.” The Bible reveals that God is a jealous God and that He is a God of wrath, but it never tells us that “God is jealousy” or that “God is wrath.” The very essence of God is love, and we should be grateful for that. When we put love, grace and mercy together, we realize that we can be saved for eternity because of the great love of God. Rejoice today, not only that God loves the world, but that He loves you. We love God! Our text makes it clear that if God did not love us, we would not love Him. Through Jesus, God has shown us what love really is. He set the example. We need to ask ourselves, however, whether or not we really love God. It is easy to say, “I love God.” It is quite another to actually love Him. Jesus said that if we love Him, we will keep His commandments – we will obey Him. If we love God, we will want to serve Him in our churches and in our communities. We will share His love with the world through witness and ministry in the name of Jesus. Paul gave us a good example of what genuine love for God will do. He traveled extensively in obedience to his call to minister to Gentiles. Because he loved God, Paul was able to overcome his prejudices against Gentiles and preach the gospel to them. We should not simply say that we love God. We should prove it by our obedience to Him. What is the last thing that you did for someone because of your great love for God? We love each other! The verses following our text reveal that if we realize that God loves us and that we love Him, we will love each other as well. 1 John 4:20-21 tells us: “If a man says I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar: for he that loves not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that he that loves God love his brother also.” If we truly love God, we will love each other as well. That is where we fall short. We let such things as disagreements and personality differences keep us from loving each other. John makes it plain that this is wrong. If we do not love each other, we simply do not love God. We can stand on the highest mountain and shout to the world “I love God,” but if we do not love each other the words will fall on deaf ears. Furthermore, if we love God, we will love non Christian people, who are all around us. The New Testament never gives us permission to hate anyone. These are hard words to understand sometimes when we really dislike someone, but whether we understand them or not, they are true. If we love God, we will love people. Love’s greatness is revealed in the New Testament as threefold: God loves us, we love God and because of this, we love each other. Let’s practice New Testament love in our lives. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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