1 John Chapter 4 Pt. 2 God Is Love And We Cannot Be Separated From His Love For Us.

The apostle John is guided to record another powerful truth about God. He is light, he is a consuming fire and now we learn that He is love.

God is love.

1 John 4:7-8  Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 8)  He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. 

The love of God is best discovered by reading the four gospels. Jesus Christ is the fullest manifestation of the fact that God is love.

He loved the world and gave His only Son for us, to die in our place, that we might believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and be saved.

The mission of Jesus Christ was the fullest proof that God could give, or that man could receive, of His infinite love to the world.

The whole world was sentenced to death because of sin; and every individual was dead in trespasses and sins.

Jesus came to die in place of the world, and to quicken every believer, that all might live for Him, who died for them and rose again.

God pours His love into each Christian's heart. 

Romans 5:5-8  And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. 6)  For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7)  For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. 8)  But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 

It is the love for sinners like us, that resulted in Christ suffering many cruel things, and dying on the cross. 

Through His vicarious suffering, death, and resurrection, Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. 

It is a love so vast and all encompassing that Christ died for us while we were still sinners, alienated from holy God. 

This same love of God is shed abroad in us, like a river overflowing its banks. It is a love such that Jesus Christ was willing to die for ungodly sinners, that He might bring them to Himself, through repentant faith.

God's love is sacrificial and unconditional.

John 3:16-18  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. 18)  He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 

These texts describe the love of God. It is an unconditional, sacrificial, everlasting love. 

This is why Jesus commanded us to love one another. All who are truly born again will love one another with this wonderful divine love. 

John provided another litmus test to help us discern genuine faith from a false profession of faith. 

Those who profess faith in Christ, but who do not have this kind of love in them, are guilty of making a false profession of faith.

The Spirit of God will reproduce that love in us. 

Galatians 5:22-23  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23)  Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

The love is worked into the heart of each Christian, by the Spirit of God. It is His holy fruit that produces Christ's likeness in us, and love is the very first of His fruits. 

1 Corinthians 13 is the great chapter that tells us what the love of God in us, looks like. It is translated "charity" in that chapter, but it is the Greek word "agape" and the divine love that it conveys to us.

God loved us first, before we ever thought to love Him.

1 John 4:9-10  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.  10) Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 

John tells us about the full manifestation of the love of God. The Father sent His Only Begotten Son into the world, so that when we turn to Christ with repentant faith, we might live in Him. 

God loved us first, while we were still vile sinners. He made the sacrifice of His own Son, to be our propitiation or covering for our sins. 

Jesus Christ was made sin for us, that we might be justified by faith in Him.

2 Corinthians 5:19-21  To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. 20)  Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. 21)  For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. 

Paul also wrote about the marvelous love of God. Think about what he is saying to us. God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

The Father made Jesus Christ to be sin for us, or in our place, that we might be made righteous through faith in His Son. 

This is why Jesus commanded that we love one another.

1 John 4:11  Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. 

Since all these things are true about the love of God and the fact that God is love, Christians should love one another. 

He loved us, though we are altogether unworthy of His love. The Greek tense expresses the idea that we never had any love for God. Rather, that He did the act of infinite love to us in sending Jesus Christ.

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. 

John told us once before that no man has ever seen God. Jesus Christ is the One who showed us the Father in heaven (See John 1:18).

Being born again fills us with the love of God and enables us to love one another. His love leads us along through this earthly pilgrimage, to a fuller, maturing love for God and for each other.

Thoughts to Ponder...

This love of God is vast and pure and inexhaustible. The apostle Paul encountered His love on the road to Damascus, when Jesus appeared to him.

Saul was on the way to kill more Christians and break up Christian families. 

The first words Paul uttered when he was blinded by the glory of Jesus, was "Who are thou, Lord?"

This was followed by Saul, trembling and asking "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?"

Paul never looked back, He always moved forward walking with Jesus Christ, and serving Him until the Lord called him home. 

Romans 8:35-39  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36)  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 37)  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38)  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39)  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

Paul raised the question "What could possibly separate us from the love of Christ Jesus? 

He listed seven different events that we might experience, and comforts us by declaring with no uncertainty, nothing in the world can separate us from the love of God, which is in Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Let this love of God occupy our thoughts. 

Let this love of God guide our words and shape our actions. 

Let this love of God motivate us to love and serve God with all our heart.

Bob