The Love of God Chapter
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
We have always thought of the thirteenth chapter of I Corinthians as the Love Chapter. However, we have in the Word of God another chapter which is filled with the love of God. That is the fourth chapter of First John. This latter chapter predominates in God's love toward us, but it also stresses our love one for another.
1. The love of God toward the whole world. John 3:16 tells us that God so loved the world. This is not a love of the lips, but a love of the heart, a love that is genuine.
When we remember that the constituents of the world are the children of the wicked one; that the whole world lieth in darkness even until now; that the world knew not the Lord Jesus when He came; that the world is corrupt to the core; we are more than amazed that God "so loved the world."
In Romans 5:8, however, we read that "God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
In the first chapter of Revelation, we read, "unto Him [that] loved us, and washed us from our sins." Accordingly, He loved, us before we were washed, The love of God toward the world of the unregenerate is a love that stands ready to lift up the fallen, to heal the helpless, to save the lost. It is the love of compassion of forgiveness, it is the love which culminated in the Calvary work of the Son of God.
2. The love of God toward His own children. This love is distinct from and different to the love of God toward the wicked. The Bible tells us that we should seek to know the "height and the depth, the length and the breadth, of the love of Christ."
The Bible cries out, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" The response is, that nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. We delight in that Scripture which describes the longsuffering of God's love. "Having loved His own * * He loved them unto the end."
God does love the world. He does love the sinner. But He has a special and a peculiar love toward His own.
We delight in that expression in the seventh chapter of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy 7:7, where we read, "The Lord did not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people": nay, it was not what was in us, but what He could put in us; it was not what we were, but what He could make of us, that made Him love us.
Somehow or other, Deuteronomy 7:8 is the best of all; Deuteronomy 7:7 says, "The Lord did not set His love upon you," because, of what ye were; Deuteronomy 7:8 says the Lord did set His love upon us, "because He loved you." The word "because" is claimed to be a woman's reason. If one asks her why she does so and so she says, "Because." Because, however, is also God's reason. He knew that we could not fathom the reason for His love, so He just said, that He loved us, because He loved us.
I. THE EXPRESSION OF HIS LOVE (1 John 4:9)
In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him.
Some people delight in speaking of God's wonderful gifts toward men in His natural creations the sun, the moon, the stars, and the heavens above; the earth, filled with everything for a man's needs: this is their conception of God's love, and God did give us all things richly to enjoy, because He loved us.
1. The gift of His Son, however, is the climatic manifestation of God's love toward us. We do not marvel, that the angelic host broke loose with the praise when they saw the infant Christ, lying in the manger. That Christ who came down from Heaven above, was sent of God.
The reason the Son was sent into the world was that we might live through Him. He did not come primarily that we might behold the Father in Him; He did not come merely that He might show us how to live; He came to give us Life. He came to lift our feet out of the miry clay, and to place them on a rock.
There is a wonderful story in the fifteenth chapter of Ezekiel, wherein God came to His people Israel. He describes Israel as cast out, unloved, and unpitied. There were none to have compassion upon them, when He passed by. Then He came unto them when they were in their blood, and said, "Live; yea, [He] said unto [them] when [they were in their] blood, Live."
In Ephesians we read of how we were dead in trespasses and in sins but how "God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, * * hath quickened us, * * and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together [with Him] in heavenly places."
With these words stated the Holy Spirit cries out, "For by grace are ye saved." Thus it was that God's love and mercy quickened us, gave us a new Life; raised us, gave us a new position; seated us, gave us a new fellowship.
When we contemplate what we were in sin, and what we are in grace, we cannot but break forth with paeans of praise, for the love wherewith He loved us.
II. THE DIVINE CONTRAST (1 John 4:10)
Our verse says, "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."
1. The frailties of human love. Sometimes we talk of our love to one another, of the depth of our love for so and so, of how much we love God. Our Lord, however, says, "Herein is love, not that we loved God."
We delight in singing, "My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine." We delight in. telling about how, for Him, "all the pleasures of sin we resign." We ardently sing "If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, 'tis now." Yet, our text says, "Herein is love, not that we loved God."
2. The marvels of the Divine love. The text continues, "Not that we loved God, but that He loved us." Perhaps both in testimony and in song we should speak less of our own love, and more of His, We should not parade what we are, or what we do, or how we love; we should magnify what He is, what He did, and how He loves.
3. The Divine love, seen in the Mercy Seat. This should be the theme of our song. "[He] sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins," We see ourselves as sinners, undone, corrupt, vile, worthy of death. We see in God's love for us the basis of His love that basis of love is the Cross of Christ, because the Cross of Christ provides for the propitiation of our sins. The word "propitiation" suggests the Mercy Seat, where we may come, and plead His grace.
Hereafter when we stand at the foot of Calvary's Cross, when we see our Saviour hanging there, despised and rejected of men, let us cry, "Herein is love!" Hereafter when we behold the Man, thorn-crowned, smitten, Cross nailed, let us reverently say, "Herein is love!"
Hereafter when we hear the cries of the Cross, "Father, forgive them"; "To day shalt thou be with Me in paradise"; "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" let us bend the knee and bow the head, and say, with all the fervor of our being, "Herein is love."
III. THE CALL OF GOD'S LOVE (1 John 4:11)
How stupendous, how filled with meaning are the words, "Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another." Think of it, and ponder its message.
1. "If God * * we ought also." Shall we take a lesser exemplar than God? Shall we try to love as the world loves, or as God loves? Shall we try to live as the world lives, or as God lives? Shall we imitate man, follow man, or shall we imitate and follow God? Shall we walk in the steps of those who are frail and weak and fallen; or, shall we walk in His steps? Shall we let the mind be in us which we find in our brethren, or shall we let the mind of Christ be in us?
To us there Is something marvelous in the fact that the Bible tells us that if God does this or that, we also should do the same. Can the human equal the Divine?
2. "If God so loved us, we ought also to love one another." We now come to the heart of it. It is God's love to us which we must have toward one another. We are asked to love our brother as God loves us. We do not know how you feel, but we feel like throwing up our hands in despair.
There is just one little word in the key verse which staggers us; that is the little word, "so," It is the same word we find in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world." In our verse it reads. "God so loved us." That little word of two letters, the word, "so," seems to measure all of the height and the depth, all of the immensity of the love of God. That little word seems to carry us to the depths of hell, from whence God has saved us, and then to the heights of Heaven's bliss, to which God will yet lift us. Spanning this immeasurable space, we read God's "so" loved us.
God next looks at us and says, "We ought also to love one another." Beloved, we are at a loss to answer God. We simply cannot love one another as He loved us.
IV. HOW WE MAY LOVE OTHERS AS GOD LOVED US (1 John 4:12)
No man hath seen God at any time. "If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us."
We can only love one another as God loves us, by God's dwelling in us. Now let us go back to 1 John 4:7 : "Beloved, let us Jove one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God."
Years ago A. B. Simpson came to our city (Macon, Ga). He taught us to sing:
"Live out Thy life in mine,
By Thy wonderful power.
By Thy grace every hour,
Live out Thy life in mine."
After Mr. Simpson had taught us this verse, he also taught us to sing,
"Live out Thy love in me,
By Thy wonderful power
By Thy grace every hour
Live out Thy love in me."
When we try to love our brother with our natural Adam-begotten love, we will always fail. We must love because His love is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.
If we love with our love, if we live with our life, we will surely fall short. When, however, His love lives in us, we will love as He loved. And when. His life is dominant in us, we will live as He lived.
We have not seen God at any time, nor can we see Him in our flesh and live. However, we may know His love. Our beings may be filled and thrilled with His love.
Once more we ask your attention to 1 John 4:7, "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born, of God."
The love which we have, must be a bestowed love. In chapter 1 John 3:1 we read, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God." This is a love bestowed upon us and it is wonderful. However, what we need is the love of God bestowed within us.
O Heavenly love, my heart subdue,
Come, dwell in me;
With Heavenly love my life imbue
Come, dwell in me:
Scatter within Thy love Divine,
Then will I love with love like Thine,
O reign in me.
V. THE CLIMACTIC STATEMENT (1 John 4:16-17)
The last sentence in 1 John 4:12, the verse which we have just considered, reads, "His love is perfected in us." 1 John 4:17 begins with the statement, "Herein is our love made perfect." This is indeed interesting. Let us see if we can discover how this love is perfected.
1. Consider the love that God hath to us. This is taken from 1 John 4:16. The Apostle says, "We have known and believed the love that God hath toward us."
2. Consider the fact that God is love. This statement is found several times in the Epistle of John, but it is never more beautifully environed than it is here. The reason God loves us, is because "God is love." God is inherently love. Some people have thought of God only as a tyrant driving men to hell. Men go to hell because they are despisers and rejecters of the love of God. God passes the death judgment upon man because he will not believe in Him that he might have life. God is a holy God, and cannot welcome into His Presence-Chamber the unholy. God is a just God, and cannot forgive the guilty. God, however, is love. Even the man who is lost, is a man who is loved.
3. Consider the fact that God dwelleth in us, and we in God. When God dwelleth in us love dwelleth in us. All of the attributes of God dwell in us. On the other hand, if we dwell in God, we dwell in love. He that keepeth himself in the love of God keepeth himself in God.
Now we can read 1 John 4:17 : "Herein is our love made perfect."
We can almost hear the Lord Jesus say, "Abide in Me, and I in you." If we abide in Him, we are abiding in everything that is lovely and beautiful; in everything that is full of joy. He Himself has said, "As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you: [Abide] ye in My love."
If we keep His commandments He says, "Ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in His love," This is the first step of perfected love our abiding.
The second step of perfected love is His abiding in us; then will we keep that other commandment, "That ye love one another, as I have loved you."
VI. THE PLACE OF NO FEAR (1 John 4:18)
"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love."
In discussing perfect love, God stops to give us a test whereby we may know whether our love is perfect; His love, perfected in us. He tells us several things.
1. There is no fear in love. He who stands in awe of God; he who is afraid to approach unto God, does not know that God is love. The smallest child will fly into the arms of its mother because there is no fear in love. The wee laddie will cling to his father, and feel himself safely sheltered in his father's arms, because there is no fear in love. The lassie will go the ends of the earth with the young man of her heart's choice because there is no fear in love. The child of God who keeps himself under the shadow of the love of God, is never afraid of God. It is for this reason that Christ said, "If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love."
When there is sin and disobedience in the heart, there is a fear of God, not but that God is love, but that a rebellious soul cannot be at peace in the arms of love.
Love casteth out fear because love seeketh the face of the Beloved, trusts the Beloved's power, basks under the Beloved's wings.
Love casteth out all fear because love is never afraid to dwell in the secret chambers of her Beloved.
The Shulamite said, "Saw ye Him whom my soul loveth?" "I sought Him, but I found Him not. I will arise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek Him whom my soul loveth." She was not afraid of her beloved. She cried, "Come, my Beloved, let us go forth into the field." She cried, "I am my Beloved's, and my Beloved is mine: He feedeth among the lilies."
When we love Christ we long for Christ. We seek for Him as seeketh the hart for the waterbrook.
2. He that feareth is not perfect in love. if we are afraid of God, afraid to approach His presence, afraid to hear His voice, it is because we are not perfect in love. Fear hath torment, but there is no dread, and no torment, when we love God and we dwell in His love.
VII. HUMAN LOVE TO GOD PUT TO THE TEST (1 John 4:20)
"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?"
1. Another of man's vain boastings. The Epistle to John frequently uses the expression, "if we say,"
"If we say that we have fellowship with Him."
"If we say that we have no sin."
"If we say that we have not sinned."
Here is another one, "If a man say, I love God." It is so easy to boast of our love to God. just as it is easy to boast of our other virtues. However, God will not stand for a false parading of pious cant. He who boasts his love to God must remember that if a man love God he will love his brother also, and that if he says, "I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar."
2. The second great commandment. The first commandment is that we should love God. This is supreme. The second great commandment is that we should love our brother, as ourselves. The commandments cannot be read in reverse order. There are so many who are forever saying, "My religion is to love my neighbor as myself." No man can love his neighbor as himself, until he loves God; because he must have the love of God perfected in him, before be can love his neighbor as himself.
Let us sit down and consider the depths of the meaning of the first four commandments which reveal our duties toward God. These commandments are summed up in one word, even this, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with ail thy strength, and with all thy mind: and thy neighbour as thyself."
The second great commandment is like unto it. It includes the sixth commandment written on the second table of stone; and it is summed up in this one word, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."
There is much in. the Epistle of John on this line. We are taught that "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren." We are also taught if any man "seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion [against] him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?"
AN ILLUSTRATION
"Knowing who the dear Lord was, the society to which He was accustomed in Heaven, its sweetness and purity, beauty and intelligence, I wonder many times how He could endure the disciples who clustered so closely around Him. I. have sat in a boat on a warm day with Galilean fishermen on the Sea of Galilee, And they were no sweeter, nor any cleaner, two thousand years ago than they are today. I don't think our blessed Lord "liked" them any better than I did. But, then, He "loved" them, which is quite different You cannot force yourself to "like" disagreeable people. But you can love them dearly. For that is a command. And it's easy for a Christian to obey. It isn't for anyone else; no. That's one of the tests of Christianity. Rev. R. J. Burdette.