Text: “We love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
When you think of the word “love” what comes to your mind? Perhaps you think of a personal affection for another person. This person could be family or friend. Maybe you think of having a very close association or intimate relationship with a particular individual. Maybe you are an animal lover and you think of the strong feelings of fondness you have for your dog or your cat.
Some of you might have a strong liking to play cards, put puzzles together, exercise, eat, shop, watch movies or a host of other things. You might use the word “love” to indicate your strong affection to do these things.
If you are in love with someone you are devoted to that person. If you love to play certain games, skydive, water ski, roller skate, bowl, there is a very good chance you are devoted to these activities.
The word “love” has many synonyms. Words like fondness, affection, cordiality, devotion, adoration, tenderness, endearment, passion and desire, illustrate different degrees of love. The meanings might vary slightly, but they are all related to the word “love.”
When John wrote this letter, he said, “Dear friends, let us love one another” (I John 4:7). As Christians, we are to love one another. Do we love everyone? I venture to say that we do not. Could we love everyone? I believe we could love each other if we really wanted to because to love is a choice.
If we truly love one another, our love will show. You might ask how our love will show forth. Paul answers that question for us when he said, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” (I Corinthians 13 4-7).
What is the source of our love? Our love “…comes from God” (1 John 4:7). So then, God is the resource or the basis of our love. God demonstrated His love for us when He sent His Son into the world. Jesus was not the originator or founder of love, but He did show the world the love of His Father.
God’s love is expressed in the Cross of Calvary. His love was brought to focus when Jesus was nailed to the Cross. Mankind was lost and the only way man could be redeemed was for His sins to be carried to the foot of the Cross. John 3:16 tells us, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
God extended His love for the benefit of each man, woman, boy and girl. His love was not centered upon Himself, but was intended to reach out to everyone who would accept it. In doing so, man would be redeemed and would have the opportunity to spend eternity with the Father.
There are times that we love others because we expect to get something in return. God did not need anything from us, but we did need all He would provide because we could not save ourselves. Man had made the mistake of disobeying God which brought sin into the world. This disobedience by Adam and Eve meant that every person born after that time would be born with a sinful nature.
It is a fact that we all have a sinful nature, but the nice part is God loves us so much that His plan was to give all of us a chance to confess our sins, accept His Son, lead a new life and spend eternity with Him in His kingdom. When we accept Jesus as our own personal Lord and Savior, The Holy Spirit comes to live within our heart and in turn gives us the ability to love others as God loves us.
“Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God” (1 John 4:7). I believe everyone loves and everyone wants to be loved. If we know God and we know that God loves us, we will follow in the footsteps of His Son Jesus Christ. Everything Jesus did, He did in the highest degree of love.
Jesus said to us, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). We all have people who do not like us or do not agree with us for some reason. Some people will try to harm us in some way, but we are not to retaliate in the same manner.
Jesus says to us, “If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you” (Matthew 5:39-42).
Regardless of how we are wronged or how we are treated by people, we are to love those people and forgive them. You might say that this cannot be. It is not natural or it is not the norm. This is very true, but our reaction will be supernatural. Our strength to carry through with positive measures will come through the Holy Spirit and will come by our prayers for these people.
If we get angry and upset, there is a chance we will do something contrary to God’s law, but if we love our enemies and pray for them, we will be doing as Jesus did when He was mistreated and ultimately crucified. Nailed to an old wooden Cross and raised between two criminals Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).
He prayed for those who were His enemies and who were crucifying Him. He did not want His Father to hold this act against them. Jesus was overcoming evil with good. The people did not know it at the time, but Jesus was opening up the way of salvation for all people. He did this out of love for His Father’s creation.
We cannot love if we do not know God. Scripture tells us, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:8). Think about those words for a moment and see if they make sense to you. Any person who does not love other people does not know God. I believe we have all come across people who just do not care for other people or who would not do anything to help another person. Is this the way Jesus conducted His life? No! Jesus always had time to stop and help one in need, no matter where He was going, how tired He was, or what hour of the day or night it happened to be.
For example, when Jesus and His disciples were leaving Jericho and heading to Jerusalem, He took time to stop and heal two blind beggars. “Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes. Immediately they received their sight and followed him” (Matthew 20:34). This was done out of love for the Father’s children.
After a day of preaching and teaching, “Jesus said to His disciples, ‘Let us go over to the other side” (Mark 4:35). Jesus had been with the crowd all day and now He and His disciples were tired and needed rest and relaxation. They got into one of the fishing boats and proceeded to go to the other side of the lake, but Jesus feel asleep on a cushion in the stern of the boat.
While the boat was crossing the lake, a storm suddenly came up and rocked the boat frightening the disciples. “The disciples woke Him and said to him, ‘Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?’” As tired as Jesus was, He got up from His sleep and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still.” (Mark 4:39) He did this out of love for His disciples.
Jesus was willing and ready to talk to people in need any time during the day or night. For example, Nicodemus wanted to ask Jesus a question, but he did not want to do it in the presence of his colleagues, so he came to see Jesus at night. Out of love, Jesus met with Nicodemus and answered his question about being ‘born again.”
How many of us are willing to go out of our way, use our time, or go the second mile for someone in need? Do we love God enough to reach in our pocket and give up the last few dollars so someone could get a bite to eat? Are we willing to listen to the person who comes to us looking for peace and tranquility, but doesn’t know where to find it?
Jesus is never to busy to love, therefore, we should never be to busy to love if we are following God’s Word. Listen to this little story:
Too Busy to Love
A father and his young daughter were great friends and much in each other’s company. Then the father noted a change in his daughter. If he went for a walk, she excused herself from going. He grieved
About it, but could not understand. When his birthday came, she presented him with a pair of exquisitely worked slippers, saying, “I have made them for you.”
Then he understood what had been the matter for the past three months, and he said, “My darling, I like these slippers very much, but the next time buy the slippers and let me have you all the days. I would rather have my child than anything she can make for me.”
Some of us are so busy for the Lord that He cannot get much of us. To us He would say, “I know your works, your labor, your patience, but I miss the first love.”
---------------------G. Campbell Morgan
Do you and I love God enough to be “The salt of the earth…and the light of the world?” (Matthew 5:13, 14). Are we able to love our enemies and pray for those who harm us? Are we willing to give up our very best possession to show God how much we love Him?
Jesus did all of these things and many more to demonstrate the love of the Father for us. He healed the sick, raised the dead, comforted the hurting, prayed for those who despitefully used Him, and He gave His life that we might spend eternity with Him in His kingdom.
“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him” (1 John 4:9). When God sent His Son into the world to pay our debt sin, it was His way of showing His love for all mankind.
“Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:11). Notice the words, “since God so loved us”. Man does not have to love God, but God truly loves man. There are people who do not know God, so therefore they cannot love Him and if they do not know God, then they do not know love, because God is love. Since they do not know God, they will not possess the love of God.
People who do not know God are miserable people. They are concerned about worldly things and not heavenly things; because their belief is that there is nothing beyond this life. Some people only believe what they can see. Since no one has ever seen God, then God doesn’t exist. That is their way of thinking.
If we know God, we will love one another because He lives within the very inner chambers of our heart “…and this is where his love is made complete in us” (1 John 4:12),
There are people who find it very easy to meet new people and converse with them. By the same token, there are people who are more reserved and tend to shy away from meeting new people. When John says we should love one another, he isn’t telling us to love more new people, but he is telling us that we should love those people we already know and those people who make us comfortable when we are in their presence.
As we learn to love our families, people we work with and people we worship with, God will see to it that more people will come into our lives at just the right time. God will take care of any shyness we may have by providing us with the proper amount of strength at the proper time.
“We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit” (1 John 4:13). Think what happened to you when you first became a Christian. When you accepted the Lord Jesus as your own personal Lord and Savior, think about what you received. You received the presence of the Holy Spirit in your heart. When the Holy Spirit came to live in your heart, this was proof that you truly belong to Almighty God.
When the Holy Spirit came to live in your heart, you had the power to love. Paul said to the Romans, “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in your hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (5:5). The Holy Spirit is the necessary evidence indicating God loves us and will help us love others.
We know and accept by faith the Word of God. We know God loves us because Jesus said, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
God was so giving that He gave us all He had. He did this so He could restore the relationship He had with mankind before the original sin of disobedience. He gave out of love. He gave so that we would understand what is involved in real true love.
Conclusion:
Our love comes from God because God is love. As we reach out in love, we are showing others that we know God. Some people cannot reach out in love because they do not know God. We know God loves us because He sent His Son into the world to pay our sin debt.
God gave His best to prove His love for us. We, too, need to give out best as we show our love to others. Our love comes from the Holy Spirit who lives within our heart. Our strength and our power to love come from the Holy Spirit.
Perfect Love:
Slow to suspect – quick to trust,
Slow to condemn – quick to justify,
Slow to offend – quick to defend,
Slow to expose – quick to shield,
Slow to reprimand – quick to forbear,
Slow to belittle – quick to appreciate,
Slow to demand – quick to give,
Slow to provoke – quick to conciliate,
Slow to hinder – quick to help,
Slow to resent – quick to forgive.
-------------------Herald of Holiness
Amen.
