SEVEN FACTS ABOUT GOD'S LOVE (Part 1)
Text: 1 John 4:7-21
The Bible says in numerous places that God loves us!
Jeremiah 31:3 “The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee.”
Ephesians 2:4 “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:”
There are many today who talk about the love of God, but are strangers to the God of love. Many act as though God's Love is a type of cordial weak-ness; a sort of good-natured indulgence.
God's love is Foundational to His nature: The Bible makes 4 descriptive statements about God’s nature:
1. “God is spirit” (John 4:24).
2. “God is a consuming fire” (Heb 12:29).
3. “God is light” (1 John 1:5)
4. “God is love” (1 John 4:8).
1 John 4 is one those outstanding sections of Scripture that summarizes the principal facts of an important subject within the confines of a condensed portion of text.
Today, we'll begin examining Seven facts about “The Love of God!”
1. GOD IS LOVE (v 8, 16). “God is love.”
- On the throne of the universe is a God of perfect love. Every act of God, even His judgments, are a result of and guided by this central ingredient of His divine nature.
Verse 8 – Addresses the Essence of God’s love. “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”
Verse 16 – Addresses the Effect of God’s love. “And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.”
Jamison, Faucet, Brown: “God is love” There is no Greek article to love, but to God; therefore we cannot translate it, “Love is God.” God is fundamentally and essentially LOVE: not merely “is loving.”
Romans 11:33, 36 “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! … For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.”
Proverbs 3:11-12 “My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; for whom the LORD loveth he correcteth;…”
2. LOVE IS OF GOD (v 7). “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.”
- All that we know to be true of Love comes to us from God! The phrase "is of" is a primary preposition denoting origin. In other words, God is the author of love! 1 Corinthians 13:4-8.
4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; 6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; 7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. 8 Charity never faileth:
- If we are to experience pure (true) love, we must be born again! John 3:3-7, 15-17 “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? 5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again… 15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”
3. WE ARE TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER (v 7, 11, 20). “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God;…Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another…If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?”
John 15:12 “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.”
John 13:35 “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”
- The reason so many Christians do not get along with one another is because they choose to not practice the Love of God;…
Or it might be because…
4. TO NOT LOVE IS TO NOT KNOW GOD (v 8). “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”
- “Knoweth not” implies “knoweth not now, and never knew God.” JFB
- “Knoweth not” implies this person has no true relationship with God; has no right views of him, and no correct feelings towards him. Barnes
- This verse says the loveless person is a person without God. A godless person is only able to practice a superficial level of love. The test of true love is revealed in the expression of that love.
CONCLUSION: God’s Love is…
- Undeserved: Romans 5:8 “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
- Universal: John 3:16
- Unfailing: John 13:1 “When Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.”
- Unsearchable: Ephesians 3:19 “To know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.”
- Unequaled: 1 John 3:2 “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”
- Unselfish: John 15:13 “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
- Unrelenting: Jeremiah 31:3 “The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee.”
