Week Eleven-Day Two: The Love of God

If you stayed with us through the end of last fall, you will remember that we were looking at attributes of God. Today, we again take up the discussion of what God is like.

If you were asked to summarize all that Christians believe as briefly as possible, what would you say? Granted, I doubt you’ll ever be asked such a thing, but if you were …

Here’s my crack at that question. I think we could offer four irreducible truths: (1) God exist, (2) God loves us, (3) God has demonstrated that love in the life, death and resurrection of His Son Jesus, and (4) He offers that love to us personally if we surrender ourselves to Him. Obviously, I would want to fill out each truth quite a bit. After all, we’ve spent 10 weeks together already filling out the first truth by dealing honestly with the existence of God and by describing what He is like.

Today we continue the discussion of what God is like, and if you check out the title, you can see how critical today’s topic is to our understanding of God. Did you notice three of the four irreducible truths were expressed in relation to God’s love for us? In fact, Jesus’ best friend John would say to his students, “God is love.”[1] Imagine trying to give a one-word description of God. Okay, that’s our topic today. I really like what A. W. Pink says about this. “It is not simply that God ‘loves,’ but that He is love itself. Love is not merely one of His attributes, but His very nature.”[2] This aspect of God – His love – represents a critical, irreducible part of the core of what Christ’s followers believe about God.

But more than just improving our understanding, knowing this aspect of God’s character powerfully informs our relationship with God. He loves us!!!!! There aren’t enough exclamation points available to us to adequately trumpet this truth!!!! I mean if God really loves us … wow! This is a truth that literally changes everything.

And the Bible makes it clear that His love is the key impulse governing His relationship with us. In other words, He is good toward us because He loves us unconditionally. He is merciful toward us because love moves mercy to triumph over judgment. He is gracious toward us because love motivates Him beyond what we deserve so that He gives us abundantly more than we merit.

Over the next four days, we will talk about what His love is like. Hopefully, this will inspire us to love Him more in return.

GOD’S LOVE FOR US IS UNINFLUENCED.

First of all, we should recognize that God’s love for us is uninfluenced! That means, we do not do anything to draw God’s attention to us or to cause Him to love us. He loves us because He is love, not because of our incredible lovability. Moses reminded the children of Israel, “The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”[3] Did you follow that? He seems to be saying “Remember, our God loves you because our God loves you.”

Paul makes this same point. “In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.”[4] That is, he acted on our behalf to draw us into an intimate relationship with Him before we acted lovingly toward Him (“predestined”). He did this as a manifestation of His love for us (“in love”) and He did it because of His own pleasure and will. God did not act because we acted. Quite the opposite. As John reminds us, “We love because He first loved us.”[5] God loved us, and has acted lovingly toward us, because … He loves us. There is no other explanation. There is no cause, other than His own character. We did not do anything to deserve it or attract it. We were not compelling or appealing. In fact, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”[6]

BEFORE YOU START YOUR DAY

1. Take a look at this quote from A. W. Pink.Does he overstate the case?

“What was there in me to attract the heart of God? Absolutely nothing. But, on the contrary, there was everything to repel Him, everything calculated to make Him loathe me – sinful, depraved, a mass of corruption, with ‘no good thing’ in me.”[7]

Think about what this says about God’s love for us. Let’s talk about that tonight, but for now just spend a little time ruminating. 

1. Read 1 John 4:13-21.As you read think about how God’s love is uninfluenced.Also notice that the ground of our love for one another is God’s love for us.

¹³ This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴ And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. ¹⁵ If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. ¹⁶ And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. ¹⁷ This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

¹⁹ We love because he first loved us. ²⁰ Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. ²¹ And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

1. Be aware of God’s love for you as you work through your day!