More Than a Feeling
God is Love • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 38:30
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· 39 viewsThe death of Christ totally satisfied God’s justice, His righteousness, and His holy hatred of sin; all through the ultimate expression of His love. Once you begin to grasp this, your thoughts of God as a loving Father will take on a whole new depth and richness.
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Introduction
Introduction
The love we hear about in popular songs is almost always portrayed as a feeling, usually some uncontrollable desire, as if that’s a good thing.
Many describe love as longing, passionate, a craving that is never satisfied, even a set of expectations that are never met.
Most love songs not only reduce love to an emotion, but they also make it involuntary.
People fall in love;
they get swept off their feet by love;
they can’t help themselves;
they go crazy for love.
It seems like a romantic sentiment to characterize love as uncontrollable passion, but those who think carefully about it soon realize that such love is both selfish and irrational.
I love you because you are beautiful/handsome - Loving you benefits my pride.
I love you because you make me happy - Loving you benefits my emotions.
I love you because you are responsible - Loving you benefits my lifestyle.
I love you because I burn with desire for you - Loving you satisfies my needs.
Unfortunately, this sort of love lacks any meaning what so ever. It is a sad and tragic reflection on how lost humanity actually is.
God is love. (love is NOT God)
God is love. (love is NOT God)
John is often called “the apostle of love”. He was fascinated and overwhelmed by the reality of God’s love.
1 John 4:8-9
In 1 John 4:8-9, he wrote:
Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.
John 3:16
These words immediately bring to mind another of John’s statements on God’s love, likely the most famous verse of the entire Bible:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
But what does it mean “God is love.”? In what sense is this statement true, and more importantly in what sense is it misunderstood?
God’s love is intrinsic to His nature.
This statement, “God is love,” is so profound that it has historically been seen as important evidence for the doctrine of the Holy Trinity.
If God is love, meaning that love is intrinsic to His very nature, then He has always loved; even from eternity past, before there was anything created to be the object of His love.
The conclusion is that this love existed between the three Persons of the Trinity; the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Clearly the love 1 John 4:8 describes is an eternal reality. The statement is that love flows from the very nature of God and is not a response to anything outside of the being of God.
There is more to God’s character than His love.
The warning, though, is not to allow the word “is” to become “equals”. Thus falling down the rabbit hole of God equals love, so love equals godliness, so love everything and everyone and I’m holy.
First, the expression “God is love” is not meant to de-personalize God or portray Him as some sort of cosmic sensation or cosmic energy. Make no mistake, God is a personal being.
Second, this verse does not identify God with everything that the world calls love.
In fact, those who cite this verse to attempt to legitimize sexual forms of love are about as far from Scripture as it is possible to get.
The love of God is a pure and holy love.
Third, this is not meant to be a definition of God or a summary of His attributes. God’s love in no way minimizes or nullifies God’s other attributes:
John 4:24
God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Deuteronomy 4:24
For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
Psalm 7:11
God is a righteous judge,
and a God who feels indignation every day.
The simple statement “God is love” obviously does not convey everything that is to be known about God.
We know from Scripture that God is also holy and righteous and true to His word. So we cannot isolate this one phrase from the rest of Scripture and attempt to make love represent the totality of God.
Even in judgment, God is love.
However, His love interacts with and influences all His other attributes.
God postpones His judgments against sin while pleading with sinners to repent.
He freely offers mercy to all who will repent.
He shows patience and goodness even to many who harden their hearts against Him.
God’s divine love holds back His divine wrath while God appeals to the sinner, but it is the proof of his justice when He does finally condemn; thus even when He condemns, “God is love.”
To be born of God is to love agapē.
To be born of God is to love agapē.
Godly love is proof of salvation.
Consequently, God is the source of all true love.
Love is therefore the best evidence that a person truly knows God. 1 John 4:7 says:
1 John 4:7
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
In other words, love proves the truth of a person's regenerate heart.
Only true Christians are capable of genuine love.
This kind of love does not flow naturally from the human heart. It is not carnal love, romantic love, or even family love.
It is a love that is unique to those who know God. It is godly love.
Agapē love is uniquely pure, holy, and godly.
In fact, the Greek word John uses for love is agapē (ag-ah´-pay).
This Greek word is probably not new to you; it has been popular to talk about this particular word for love in recent times to distinguish how Christians should love.
But this word is significant in more than just its sense; it is significant that John chooses it because it was highly unusual in John’s culture to use this particular word for love.
In fact, the word agapē (ag-ah´-pay) was not common, even to Greek speakers, until the written New Testament made it so.
There were two other common Greek words for love:
philĕō (fil-eh´-o), to describe a brotherly or family type of love;
and eros (air-os), which we derive the word “erotic” from and describes everything from romantic love to sexual passion.
These two words were thought to encompass all of “natural affection” or human love and thus agapē (ag-ah´-pay) was an obscure word.
However, John wants to stress a pure, holy, Godly love which can only be known by those who are born of Him.
Agapē love is integral to our reborn, divine nature.
Donald W. Burdick talks about three characteristics of this Godly sort of love:
It is spontaneous. There was nothing of value in the persons loved that called forth such sacrificial love. God of His own free will set his love on us in spite of our enmity and sin. [Agape] is love that is initiated by the lover because he wills to love, not because of the value or lovableness of the person loved. It is self-giving. [Agape] is not interested in what it can gain, but in what it can give. It is not bent on satisfying the lover, but on helping the one loved whatever the cost. It is active. [Agape] is not mere sentiment cherished in the heart. Nor is it mere words however eloquent. It does involve feeling and may express itself in words, but it is primarily an attitude toward another that moves the will to act in helping to meet the need of the one loved.
This kind of love cannot be conjured up by humans. It is formed in the hearts of believers by God Himself. 2 Peter 1:4 says that through salvation we have become “partakers of [God’s] divine nature”:
2 Peter 1:4
by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
Godly love, agapē (ag-ah´-pay), therefore is one of the most important tests of the reality of someone’s faith.
Without agapē love, one does not know God
Without agapē love, one does not know God
A lack of agapē love exposes false Christians.
As a result, it is important to understand the context of First John.
The Apostle is writing about a believers assurance of salvation and providing several practical and doctrinal tests that either demonstrate or disprove the genuineness of someone’s salvation.
John says as much in
1 John 5:13
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.
He is writing to help struggling believers gain assurance.
But along the way he has a secondary purpose, and that is to expose the falsehood of those who profess faith in Christ without really knowing Him.
1 John 4:8
In 1 John 4:8, he makes Godly love a kind of litmus test for a true Christian:
Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
Faith manifested through agapē love is repulsive to sinners.
Unfortunately, most of us regularly encounter professing Christians who don’t seem to possess even the slightest bit of genuine, Godly love. Galatians 5:6 says:
Galatians 5:6
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.
Paul stresses to us that the mere pretense of faith in Christ is worthless. The truth of genuine faith will inevitably be shown by love. After all, real faith works through love.
This sort of God-given love is not easily counterfeited. Look at all that is involved:
Love for God: 1 Corinthians 16:22
Love for God Himself:
If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come!
Love for the church: 1 John 3:14
Love for your brethren in the church:
We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.
Love for truth and righteousness: Romans 6:17-18
Love for truth and righteousness:
But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
Love for God’s law: Psalm 1:2
Love for the Word of God:
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
Love for your enemies: Matthew 5:44
And even love for one’s enemies:
But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
Love like that is contrary to human nature. It is at war with our natural selfishness. The very thought of loving these things repulses a sinful heart.
When God lives in us, we will love agapē.
Later, in 1 John 4:16, the Apostle writes:
1 John 4:16
So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
John tells us that to have this love, God must abide in us; coming full circle back to agapē (ag-ah´-pay) love being the mark of genuine faith.
The power of God’s love is found on the cross
The power of God’s love is found on the cross
God’s love motivated Him to satisfy His wrath and justice through Jesus Christ.
In addition, Scripture does not merely say “God is love” and leave it up to us to interpret subjectively what that means.
There is a very important context in which the love of God is explained and illustrated. Looking at 1 John 4:10 we discover that the apostle explains the love of God in terms of sacrifice, atonement for sin, and propitiation:
1 John 4:10
In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
“Propitiation”; that word speaks of a sacrifice designed to turn away the wrath of an offended deity. John is saying that God gave His Son as an offering for sin, to satisfy his own wrath and justice in the salvation of sinners.
If the cross bears no wrath against sin, there is no love in Christ’s sacrifice.
We can’t ignore theological liberals on this point, who are keen to affirm that God is love; yet they often outright deny the significance of Christ on the cross.
They suggest vigorously that God is love, meaning Christ did not actually need to die as a substitutionary sacrifice to turn away the divine wrath from sinners.
They portray God as easy to appease, and they characterize the death of Christ as an act of martyrdom or simply just a moral example for believers,.
They deny that it was God’s wrath that requires justice and He purposely gave His Son in order to make the required atonement.
By doing this, they reject the supreme manifestation of God’s love, even while attempting to make love the centerpiece of their system.
The cross of Christ gives the most complete and accurate perspective of a topic we will discuss over and over in this series: the balance between God’s wrath and His love.
At the cross, His love is shown to sinful humanity and His wrath is poured out on His beloved Son, who had done nothing worthy of any kind of punishment.
Romans 5:8
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
In light of God’s wrath, Christ’s death on the cross is the highest possible expression of God’s love. However, strip God’s wrath away and now the cross is reduced to a meaningless act by a powerless God.
God’s holy wrath against sin makes the love of the cross necessary.
The good news is not that God is willing to overlook sin and forgive sinners.
That would compromise God’s holiness. That would leave justice unfulfilled. That would trample on true righteousness.
The real good news is that God Himself, through the sacrifice of His Son, paid the price of sin.
God was not responding to anything in sinners that made them worthy of His grace. On the contrary , His love is altogether un-deserved by humanity.
The sinners Christ died for, all of us, are worthy of nothing but God’s wrath.
Because God is righteous, He must punish sin; He cannot simply absolve guilt and leave justice unsatisfied.
But the death of Christ totally satisfied God’s justice, His righteousness, and His holy hatred of sin; all through the ultimate expression of His love.
Once you begin to grasp this, your thoughts of God as a loving Father will take on a whole new depth and richness.
Conclusion
Conclusion
According to Scripture, love is not a helpless sensation of desire.
Rather, it is a purposeful act of self-giving. Someone who genuinely loves is deliberately devoted to the one they love.
That kind of love cannot possibly be an emotion that ebbs and flows involuntarily.
It is more than a feeling.
The mark of true love is not unbridled desire or wild passion;
it is a giving of oneself, and we find love’s perfection in Jesus Christ.
PRAYER
PRAYER