God is Love

"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” (1 John 4:16)

In the sermons of 2010, we’ve been looking at the person, the character of God.  To sum it all up, He is simply – wonderful!  Last week we saw that He is “Uncontainable.”  He is far beyond our thoughts, our ideas, and our ability to understand.  He is God.  We saw the words of Isaiah the prophet, quoting the Lord Himself: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9).  He is infinite, unlimited; we are not.  There is more about Him than we could possibly imagine, but we must prayerfully see that He IS love!  Many take it somewhat for granted that He is that way, but really don’t comprehend the height and depth of His love.  Those who do not feel loved, deep inside may recognize His love, but question, “Why doesn’t He love ME?  The answer is – He DOES love you.  Most parents tend to be permissive these days, not wanting to lose the love of their children, but “the Lord reproves him whom He loves, as a father the son in whom he delights” (Proverbs 3:11-12, Hebrews 12:5-6).  He will change us and we will be glad He did.  And note, His love is infinitely deeper and higher than any love we could imagine.

Our problem is that we see everything through humanity’s imperfection.  Our love is limited, even though we may think otherwise, and life will put our love to the test.  Marriage is widespread throughout the world, but strangely the counter-force of divorce has become a pervading disease, with selfishness, the opposite of love, a big part of the problem.  Most marriages are not “until death do us part” these days, but instead last as long as the partner is needed or wanted.

God’s love is without limit.  The Father sent the Son, and “at the right time Christ died for the ungodly…” for people everywhere, including you. Scripture teaches that “while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son…” (Romans 5:8-10).  Just prayerfully consider for a moment what it would be like to die for someone else so that they might live.  Someone, some person who does not like you or want anything to do with you.  Your enemy, who has gone out of their way to do you harm, pretending perhaps that you do not exist.  And now imagine that you sent your beloved child to rescue that enemy, and when the bullets began to fly, your child flung himself in front of your enemy to save that life.  Your child died, your enemy lives.  And that, by God’s definition, is what love is all about.

Jesus revealed the Father’s intention for the people of humanity in many ways.  Here are words that are known to many: “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved” (John 3:16-17).  If you choose to not believe in the Son, God’s love is still unlimited because the offer of life through the Son has been extended to you just like everybody else.  The Scripture continues, “Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (John 3:18).  The ones who refuse the Lord’s offer of “eternal life” will get their way.  They will be allowed to reject the offer to be with the Lord, and their decision will be – forever.

I have been blessed with a whole library of books, including commentaries, volumes about theology, various religions, history, concordances, dictionaries, a number of different Bible translations and more.  In college, I trained under a man I came to respect and love – Dr. O. Cope Budge, who trained under Dr. James Oliver Buswell, a famous theologian. I have Buswell’s two-volume textbook, “A Systematic Theology of the Christian Religion,” which tries to answer – Everything! Do you want “Evidences for the Existence of God?” This book has them.  Do you want to examine the “Doctrine of the Trinity?” This book will help you do it.  But God wants more than our knowledge.  He “is love,” and we are to be changed by His love.  The Son of God died to make it possible.  We need more than theology – we need the Lord. We desperately need His love.

The verse that immediately precedes today’s Scripture is this: “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God” (1 John 4:15). Are you astonished by the love of God? You should be. We all should be amazed by His love “for He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).  Jesus, God the Son, did more, infinitely more than merely dying as all in humanity do. He experienced our sins on the cross and died to set us free from that which has demeaned and ruined humanity throughout all history.  He died for you and me.

Methodist minister William L. Watkinson, who died in 1925, reported that “Niagara Falls stopped once! Owing to an ice dam thrown across the river, the waters failed, the rainbow melted, the vast music was hushed.” Watkinson continued, “But there has been no moment in which the love of God has failed toward the rational universe, when its eternal music has been broken, or the rainbow has ceased to span the throne. There never will be such a moment. The crystal tide flows richly, and flows forever.”  Paul the Apostle knew that NOTHING can separate us from God’s love.  He said, “Neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities nor powers, not things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:38-39).

God is strong, He knows everything about you, He can change everything in your life, He is good and full of grace, He is holy and more, but does He love you enough to act on your behalf and save you from sin and death – forever? And the answer is yes, absolutely yes.  “God IS love,” as He showed by the death of Jesus Christ for you on that awful cross.

The world has produced some impressive scholars through the centuries.  Some of them have recognized that everything they have been given has come from God and others have chosen to reject the Lord altogether.  Whatever their decision about God, He did create each one of us and whatever we have is from Him.  He could have caused us to become fruit flies, garden snails or weeds in the garden, but instead He created us as men and women capable of becoming sons and daughters of God, through simple faith in the Lord.

Kenneth S. Wuest, a New Testament Greek scholar, understood what we call the “agape” love of God and wrote about it.  Here’s what he said: “Agapao…  is determined by the character of the one who loves, and that of the object loved... God’s love for a sinful and lost race springs from His heart in response to the high value He places upon each human soul.  Every person, every sinner is exceedingly precious in His sight… The love in John 3:16,” he said, “is a love whose essence is that of self-sacrifice for the benefit of the one loved, based upon an evaluation of the preciousness of the one loved…”  You are precious to God.  He utterly loves you.

Our Scripture for today contains the words of John, the “beloved apostle,” who walked with, observed and listened to Jesus for three years.  Over a subsequent period of 40-days, He saw and touched the Risen Christ.  He knew and trusted in the Lord.  He saw firsthand that “God is love,” experiencing that “he who abides in love abides in God,” for the Lord brings the love of God into the hearts and lives of those who believe.  If your heart “abides in God,” He will abide in you, and He brings His great love into those who will trust in Him (1 John 4:16).

Dear Lord, I give You my heart and my life.  I place my trust in You now.  Please fill my heart with the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.  In His Name I pray.  Amen.

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