In LOVE
Part 1: “What the World Needs Most,” we considered the emptiness that
results when we seek love apart from
God. But when we yield to God’s pursuit
of us, we experience real love and are transformed by it. We stop worshiping ourselves and plunge by
faith into the infinite sea of God’s great love. When we have become immersed (“baptized”) in God’s
love through His Holy Spirit, all thoughts of ourselves being a source of love begin to dissolve away and
our whole disposition changes. LOVE Part 2: “It’s Out of This World” pointed us toward God as the ultimate source of unconditional (agape) love. John opens his Gospel with the claim that God’s Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1: 14). “The Word” is God incarnated as Jesus Christ Who came to Earth over 2,000 years ago to show us God’s love and to save us from our sins. Today, God reveals His love both through the inspired Word contained in the Bible (e.g. 1 John 4: 7-10) and through the amazing form and function of His creation (Romans 1: 20).
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| Sunflower heads orient in the direction of the sun. |
God’s love comes to Earth like pure rays of sunlight after traveling 90
million miles—literally, from “out of this world.” Sunlight warms the planet, causes plants to
grow, and supplies food and oxygen essential for life. Just as life on Earth depends on energy from
an outside source, we cannot be alive spiritually and be lavishers of love unless
we are transformed by the light of God’s truth and love as revealed in
the Scriptures.
God’s lavished love still manifests itself through transformed lives of Christ-followers. As we explained in LOVE Part 2, God transforms the life of each lost sinner when he or she hears the Gospel (“Good News”), realizes their “heredity of sin” (Romans 3: 23), and chooses to die to “self” and be “born again” through union with Christ (Romans 6: 1-14). It is God’s love and grace that draws the sinner to hear and respond by faith to the light of Truth (Ephesians 2: 8-9).
When God’s love works in our lives, we honor Christ and His Gospel in the sight of others who need God’s saving love (1 Peter 3: 15). Now, we will discuss how God’s lavished love transforms us into lovers of Him and our neighbor. The key to our spiritual transformation is hinted at in the title of this article, “LOVE Part 3: Because He First Loved Us.”
The apostle John wrote, We love because He first loved us (1 John 4: 19). If we believe John’s claim to be true, then how exactly does God’s love transform us and enable us to lavish His love on the people and the creation He loves? The answer is evident when we consider John’s statement, “because He loved us first.”
First, John’s use of the word “because” suggests that we ought to love God out
of a realization of all God has done to
redeem us.” The Apostle John was moved
to exclaim, See what great love the
Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! (1 John 3: 1).
Our realization of God’s love is elevated to obligation when we read 1 John 4: 11: Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. This ought brings moral significance because it commands us to assign value to God and to other people with whom we associate. The moral and ethical reason for loving God and our neighbor is confirmed by the command in 1 John 1: 6, Love means doing what God has commanded us, and He has commanded us to love one another…. Our love is only registered in God’s eyes when we obey His commands.
But there is a third element of our “motivation” to love besides realization and obligation. The word “because” in 1 John 4: 19 also suggests that God gives Christ-followers an inner compulsion to love—i.e. “we love because we cannot help but love.” When we come to the Cross of Calvary, realize Christ’s sacrifice for us, and obey God’s command to “love one another as I have loved you,” God’s Spirit creates an inner compulsion to love as He loves us. The Apostle Paul wrote that Christ’s love compels us because we are convinced… he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again (2 Corinthians 5: 14-15).
Philippians 2: 12-13 combines all three “motivations” for loving—realization, obligation, and compulsion (emphasis mine):
So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
According to verse 12, if we obey God’s command (“work out your salvation”) in the daily situations of life, He “wills and works” His good pleasure within us. Oswald Chambers wrote,* “God’s life in us expresses itself as God’s life, not as human life trying to be godly.” As we take up His cross (or “yoke”) and bear it daily and lovingly, we are not alone. We bear it in partnership with Jesus Christ (Matthew 11: 28-30). The Holy Spirit in turn enables us to experience our Father’s love and good pleasure, and to share His love with others. Therefore, Christ’s claim is true: “My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (11: 30).
Because of our willing submission to God, His love and power can work within us,
producing fruit of the Spirit (i.e.
love, joy, etc. according to Galatians
5: 22-23) that is pleasing to Him and attractive to our neighbor. Again, by our analogy of sunlight, when the
Sun’s rays warm the soil in the Spring, seeds sprout and seedlings emerge into
the light through what botanists call a positive
phototropic response. That is, each
seedling takes in the light energy and grows “in obedience” toward the light. As tiny leaves enlarge in response to light, they
intercept more light. By the time the
seedling has grown into a mature plant, it has accumulated enough energy and
nutrient resources so that it can bear fruit. We might say, obedient pursuit of the light (input
of God’s love) leads to abundant fruit-bearing (supernatural output of love).
We can see that humble submission is a key to receiving and sharing God’s love. Jesus used a “seed analogy” to teach how we must die to self in order to receive new spiritual life and growth. We must be like a seed that falls to the ground and dies to itself (i.e. gives up its food reserves for the embryo) in order to enable the seedling to emerge from the soil (John 12: 24). In John 15: 7-14 Jesus uses another plant analogy: “the vine and the branches.” Speaking to Christ-followers, Jesus says in essence, You are like branches and if you obediently remain grafted into Me (Jesus) and receive my love, you will be filled and compelled to express My love to God and to your neighbor—even to the extent of giving up your life if necessary.
In summary, we have considered how it is that God’s love transforms us and enables us to lavish His love on the people and things He loves. The Apostle John’s point is this-- We love because He first loved us (1 John 4: 19). If we respond in obedience to God’s love as He commands us, we are in fact showing evidence of our love for Him. We will also realize that love does not ultimately come from us; it is from God as a fruit of His Spirit abiding and working in us.
While He commanded that we love Him, Jesus also knew what was in men’s hearts (John 2: 24). Jesus knows that my heart is very prone to forget or deny His truth and great love. I am prone to deny my Savior in thought, word, and deed. Also, perhaps like you, I frequently face people and situations that challenge my ability to love unselfishly and witness unashamedly. Therefore, I have been studying other passages of Scripture that teach what God expects of me in regard to his love. In “LOVE Part 4: Dying to Be Loved,” we will consider how focusing on the Cross of Christ and His great sacrifice for us magnifies the holiness and judgment of God, and even more, the great love of God.
How About You?
Is there a point in your life where you surrendered to the claims of Christ and asked Him to forgive you and be your Savior? If not, I refer you to Steps to Peace with God which will explain how you can become a Christ-follower. Without Christ, you are dead in sin, cut off from the vine which provides spiritual nourishment needed to yield the fruit of the Spirit in your life. In your unsaved condition, you are facing judgment for your sin and the “wages” of eternal separation from God (Romans 6: 23). Romans 8: 6-7 states that those who are not at peace with God remain hostile toward Him because their minds are not "tuned" to the Spirit of God]. In fact, according to Romans 8: 7-8, they are not even able to do so...
Maybe you have received Christ but your spirit (your "receiver" or "antenna") needs to be tuned again to the voice of God's Spirit speaking to you through His Word, or friends, or circumstances. Ask God to help you turn again to Christ for forgiveness and cleansing (1 John 1: 9). Then, as a Christ-follower, when you open your Bible and read, God’s Spirit will go to work to make your spirit and mind receptive to the Scriptures, and to give you understanding of the truth you are reading. When you are receptive to that truth, God’s Spirit will empower you to respond to the Scripture for reproof, for correction, [and] for training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3: 16). When God’s Spirit can freely guide your mind and will, He will produce in you the fruit of His love so that you can love God and your neighbor as He intends. If you have questions, please contact me at silviusj@cedarville.edu
---------------------
*Oswald Chambers. 1935. My Utmost for His Highest, September 20 (Dodd, Mead, & Co., New York, NY.)
God’s lavished love still manifests itself through transformed lives of Christ-followers. As we explained in LOVE Part 2, God transforms the life of each lost sinner when he or she hears the Gospel (“Good News”), realizes their “heredity of sin” (Romans 3: 23), and chooses to die to “self” and be “born again” through union with Christ (Romans 6: 1-14). It is God’s love and grace that draws the sinner to hear and respond by faith to the light of Truth (Ephesians 2: 8-9).
When God’s love works in our lives, we honor Christ and His Gospel in the sight of others who need God’s saving love (1 Peter 3: 15). Now, we will discuss how God’s lavished love transforms us into lovers of Him and our neighbor. The key to our spiritual transformation is hinted at in the title of this article, “LOVE Part 3: Because He First Loved Us.”
The apostle John wrote, We love because He first loved us (1 John 4: 19). If we believe John’s claim to be true, then how exactly does God’s love transform us and enable us to lavish His love on the people and the creation He loves? The answer is evident when we consider John’s statement, “because He loved us first.”
Our realization of God’s love is elevated to obligation when we read 1 John 4: 11: Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. This ought brings moral significance because it commands us to assign value to God and to other people with whom we associate. The moral and ethical reason for loving God and our neighbor is confirmed by the command in 1 John 1: 6, Love means doing what God has commanded us, and He has commanded us to love one another…. Our love is only registered in God’s eyes when we obey His commands.
But there is a third element of our “motivation” to love besides realization and obligation. The word “because” in 1 John 4: 19 also suggests that God gives Christ-followers an inner compulsion to love—i.e. “we love because we cannot help but love.” When we come to the Cross of Calvary, realize Christ’s sacrifice for us, and obey God’s command to “love one another as I have loved you,” God’s Spirit creates an inner compulsion to love as He loves us. The Apostle Paul wrote that Christ’s love compels us because we are convinced… he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again (2 Corinthians 5: 14-15).
Philippians 2: 12-13 combines all three “motivations” for loving—realization, obligation, and compulsion (emphasis mine):
So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
According to verse 12, if we obey God’s command (“work out your salvation”) in the daily situations of life, He “wills and works” His good pleasure within us. Oswald Chambers wrote,* “God’s life in us expresses itself as God’s life, not as human life trying to be godly.” As we take up His cross (or “yoke”) and bear it daily and lovingly, we are not alone. We bear it in partnership with Jesus Christ (Matthew 11: 28-30). The Holy Spirit in turn enables us to experience our Father’s love and good pleasure, and to share His love with others. Therefore, Christ’s claim is true: “My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (11: 30).
We can see that humble submission is a key to receiving and sharing God’s love. Jesus used a “seed analogy” to teach how we must die to self in order to receive new spiritual life and growth. We must be like a seed that falls to the ground and dies to itself (i.e. gives up its food reserves for the embryo) in order to enable the seedling to emerge from the soil (John 12: 24). In John 15: 7-14 Jesus uses another plant analogy: “the vine and the branches.” Speaking to Christ-followers, Jesus says in essence, You are like branches and if you obediently remain grafted into Me (Jesus) and receive my love, you will be filled and compelled to express My love to God and to your neighbor—even to the extent of giving up your life if necessary.
In summary, we have considered how it is that God’s love transforms us and enables us to lavish His love on the people and things He loves. The Apostle John’s point is this-- We love because He first loved us (1 John 4: 19). If we respond in obedience to God’s love as He commands us, we are in fact showing evidence of our love for Him. We will also realize that love does not ultimately come from us; it is from God as a fruit of His Spirit abiding and working in us.
While He commanded that we love Him, Jesus also knew what was in men’s hearts (John 2: 24). Jesus knows that my heart is very prone to forget or deny His truth and great love. I am prone to deny my Savior in thought, word, and deed. Also, perhaps like you, I frequently face people and situations that challenge my ability to love unselfishly and witness unashamedly. Therefore, I have been studying other passages of Scripture that teach what God expects of me in regard to his love. In “LOVE Part 4: Dying to Be Loved,” we will consider how focusing on the Cross of Christ and His great sacrifice for us magnifies the holiness and judgment of God, and even more, the great love of God.
How About You?
Is there a point in your life where you surrendered to the claims of Christ and asked Him to forgive you and be your Savior? If not, I refer you to Steps to Peace with God which will explain how you can become a Christ-follower. Without Christ, you are dead in sin, cut off from the vine which provides spiritual nourishment needed to yield the fruit of the Spirit in your life. In your unsaved condition, you are facing judgment for your sin and the “wages” of eternal separation from God (Romans 6: 23). Romans 8: 6-7 states that those who are not at peace with God remain hostile toward Him because their minds are not "tuned" to the Spirit of God]. In fact, according to Romans 8: 7-8, they are not even able to do so...
Maybe you have received Christ but your spirit (your "receiver" or "antenna") needs to be tuned again to the voice of God's Spirit speaking to you through His Word, or friends, or circumstances. Ask God to help you turn again to Christ for forgiveness and cleansing (1 John 1: 9). Then, as a Christ-follower, when you open your Bible and read, God’s Spirit will go to work to make your spirit and mind receptive to the Scriptures, and to give you understanding of the truth you are reading. When you are receptive to that truth, God’s Spirit will empower you to respond to the Scripture for reproof, for correction, [and] for training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3: 16). When God’s Spirit can freely guide your mind and will, He will produce in you the fruit of His love so that you can love God and your neighbor as He intends. If you have questions, please contact me at silviusj@cedarville.edu
---------------------
*Oswald Chambers. 1935. My Utmost for His Highest, September 20 (Dodd, Mead, & Co., New York, NY.)
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