“Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, the we should be called the sons of God; therefore, the world knows us not, because it knew Him not.”
The first thing that I want to do in this article is to establish the fact that God loves us. I know that this is a theme that I have written about time and time again, but it is a theme that we can’t get enough of. Some people are so hung up on the judgments of God in scripture that they cannot see the great love that He has for them. John 3:16 tells us that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” 1 John 4:8 says “God is love.” That is a statement of fact. It does not just say that God loves, but that God is love. The Bible depicts God’s love as being so great that it is His very nature. His love is so great that He will not let us off, and He will not let us get by with what is bad for us. It is called God’s discipline. Here is the proof text for it: “And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks unto you as children, my son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, or faint when you are rebuked by Him. For whom the Lord loves he chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as sons; for what son is he whom the father chastens not? God’s love for us is complete." (Hebrews 12:5-7) The second thing I want to do is to establish that it is because of God’s love that we can be His children. (“Sons” can also be translated “children.”) The fact that we can become children of God is the fulfillment of God’s love. The great God of the universe loves us so much that He wants to establish a relationship with us. As we saw in John 3:16, God went to great lengths to give us a personal relationship with Himself through Jesus Christ. Romans 5:8 gives us another glimpse of the greatness of the love of God: “But God commends His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” In His matchless love, God did not wait until all of us got better; He showed His love for us while we were still sinners. In the New Testament this is called grace. God’s grace tells us that He loves us and will save us in spite of our sinful selves. We need to grasp the reality of this. There are people who will not come to Jesus because they think they are too sinful. They just do not understand the matchless love of God. He is in the business of forgiving all sinners, and He does not measure how deep in sin they are. All He wants to do is to dig us out of the depths of sin. Every individual on this earth is a candidate to become a child of God. That is how far-reaching His matchless love is. The third thing I want to establish is that when we surrender to God’s love and receive Jesus as our Savior, our lives take on a new purpose. It becomes our responsibility, and our purpose, to share the love of God with other people. The text tells us that “the world knows us not, because it knew Him not.” In other words, the world does not determine our lifestyles or our theologies. Our task is to show Him to the world in order for them to become His children too. This is why at the end of each of the gospels, Christians are told to go out into the world and witness about the matchless love of God. Just because the world doesn’t know Him, or us, does not mean that the world cannot come to Him or join us. Our purpose is to share the matchless love of God with a world that is filled with envy and hate. It was love that compelled God to save and it is His love in us that compels us to share that love with others. Pause now and thank God for His matchless love, and ask Him to give you opportunities today to share His love with others. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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