God Loves Us and We Should Love Others.
How can we be sure that God loves us? Is it necessary for us to love others? Ray demonstrates that we are loved by God and must love others in turn.
God Loves Us
God loves us. It is an undeniable fact. He clearly tells us this in the Bible.
God loves us and longs for us to love Him back. Also an undeniable fact.
God wants us to love others like He loves us.
However, if you rely only on your feelings, there may be days when we do not feel loved at all, and there may also be people who you feel you cannot love. Nevertheless, when we begin to understand God’s love, receive it and experience it, it changes the way that we think and behave.
We need to rely on what God tells us, not on what we might feel when we are going through a rough patch in our lives.
He says:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Matthew 22:37-39
Here are some ways that we can know the depth of God’s love for us, and our responsibility to love in return.
God Created Us With Loving Care
One of the most amazing truths to realize is that God knows us intimately, and loves us deeply. In Psalm 139:13-18 we read that God created every part of us while we were still protected in our mother’s womb. Listen to what He says:
13For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.
Our bodies are a marvelous example of His creativity, containing over 30 trillion cells. As scientists discover more about the extraordinarily complex nature of our bodies, we realize that our Creator went to amazing lengths to design us.
Not only this, He is aware of every moment of our lives.
The writer of the above Psalm, King David, says:
How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.
We can only conclude that God loves us and cares deeply about us as individuals.
Check out our Podcast Playlist about love.
Christ Died For Us
The passage in John chapter 3 tells us that God loved the world so much He sent Jesus, His one and only Son, to save us. Christ’s death was necessary to save us from our sins. The punishment of sin is death, yet Christ took our place and died for us.
Augustine wrote:
“God looked through eternity past and He saw you and He chose to reach out and redeem you by His own grace. It’s hard to imagine that kind of love.”
That is the extent of God’s love for us. Who else do you know who would die for you! Yet that is how much God loves you! God wants you to experience the salvation that He offers through faith in His Son, Jesus.
God the Father Wants to Adopt Us
The Romans understood the significance of adoption. In his will, Julius Caesar had bequeathed his wealth and title to his posthumously adopted son Octavian, despite the fact that Marc Anthony was a closer male relative. Octavius, who later become the emperor known to us as Caesar Augustus, benefitted enormously from his distant relative’s patronage. Adoption was seen by the Romans as a way to pass on to an individual the rights and privileges of a naturally born son.
In addition, one of the key benefits of being adopted is to know that your parents intentionally chose you. One of the great teachings of scripture is that God adopts us! In Galatians 4:4-5 (NLT) we read:
But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children.
God sent Jesus to buy our freedom, and as his adopted children, we receive all the benefits of an heir. We become joint heirs with God. Imagine that! Our inheritance is as big as the universe! Even better, God does not have to die for us to inherit, although Jesus’ death and resurrection makes it possible. We will jointly inherit a kingdom that is far greater than we could ever possible begin to imagine.
God Wants to Have a Loving Relationship With Us
Loneliness is physically painful. Just as you have a drive to avoid physical pain, you have a similarly powerful drive to connect with others and seek companionship – in order to avoid the pain of loneliness. Now some of us are extroverts and some of us are introverts but we all experience loneliness at times.
We read in Genesis that God did not intend for us to be alone, but to love and be loved.
Genesis 2:18 “The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
Genesis 3 8-9 “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
If we come to the New Testament, we find the same concept. God loves us and wants to have an intimate relationship with us. Just as a branch is an integral part of a tree and is intimately connected to it, we must be connected to the Lord. Jesus describes this in John 15:1-5 when He describes us as being a branch of Himself, “the true grapevine.”
Remain in Jesus
Our lives can be truly fruitful and full of blessing when we remain in Jesus because He promises He “will remain in You.” This is a deep and lasting connection that demonstrates Jesus’ desire to be an integral part of our lives.
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. John 15: 1-5
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
It is this loving, intimate connection with God that allows us to be fruitful. It is through this connection that we find meaning and purpose in life. When we try to block that connection, we miss out on the intimacy that we can have with God and fail to be fruitful in our lives.
He is Preparing a Home for Us
It is not God’s intention to leave us here on this broken, run down world. Whether Jesus returns in our lifetime, or we die and go to meet Him, He is preparing a home for us that will truly blow our minds. Our loving God knows that this world is far from perfect. His vision for our home is far greater than our tiny minds can comprehend. Jesus says
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. John 14:1-3
One of my friends recently shared that he is in the process of moving to a new home. The builders are currently preparing a home for him. He is excited because he is looking forward to coming to live in Waterloo and living near us and with his old friends.
Jesus invites us to the home that He is preparing for us! This home will be lavishly appointed in every way, but most importantly – Jesus will be there! It will be a marvelous home full of loved ones and empty of pain, fear and suffering, but the way to that home is always and only through Jesus who said:
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6
We need to make it clear then that there is only way to gain access to this marvelous home that God is preparing for us. It is through Jesus. There is no other way. We live in a world where there are those that say that there are many ways to God. That is not what Jesus taught.
To Love Others Is Not an Option, It Is a Command
Loving others is not an option for a Christian, it is an imperative. We must love others. Christ calls us into a community of believers. He does not call us to be hermits. There is a deep connection between our love for God and our love for other people.
We are called to love the church and by that I don’t mean the four walls. We do not have to get along with a building. We do not have to forgive four walls. We do however, have to learn to work in harmony, loving and forgiving one another.
The apostle John identifies 3 tests to determine whether someone is truly a believer.
The first is a moral test – the test of obedience.
“ Anyone who continues to live in him will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is.” I John 3:6 NLT
The second is a social test – the test of love. If we say that we are believers, if we say that we are followers of Christ, we must love our neighbour.
“But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” I John 4:8 NLT
The third is doctrinal – a test of belief in Christ
All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. I John 4:15 NLT
Can we pass these tests? It is important that we take to examine our hearts and our actions humbly.
Our Love Cannot Be Hypocritical
It is not enough just to talk about love either. Our actions must back this up:’
“Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions. I John 3:18
We need to be aware, however, that our love must be genuine. The detection of counterfeit love is inevitable.
The Apostle Paul reminds us that our love cannot be a pretence. We cannot say we love someone, then stab them in the back.
“Don’t just pretend to love others.” Romans 12:9 NLT
Although we can be fooled temporarily by false love or flattery, the truth will come to light sooner or later.
Francois Fenelon was the court preacher for King Louis XIV of France in the 17th century. One Sunday when the king and his attendants arrived at the chapel for the regular service, no one else was there but the preacher.
King Louis demanded, “What does this mean?” Fenelon replied, “I had published that you would not come to church today, in order that your Majesty might see who serves God in truth and who flatters the king.” (Sermon Central)
This, of course, proves that the regular attendees were not there out of love for God but out of a desire to impress the king. If we seek to impress others or the Lord Himself, we will be found out. Our love for God and others should be genuine.
Summary
The Christian cannot escape the fact that he must love the way that God loves. Jesus models love for us. We are compelled, as followers of Jesus who have experienced His love, to love others in turn. In the same way that Jesus sacrificed Himself for us, we must learn to love sacrificially.
What do find most difficult about loving others? We would love to hear from you. Comment below or contact us at HopeStreamRadio.
Ray Marshall was born in Scotland but emigrated to Canada in 1977 where he met his wife Kelly. In the 1990’s, Ray and Kelly served as missionaries in both Ireland and Ecuador, and after returning to Canada, they served as church planters in Belleville.
Between 2009 and 2014, Ray and Kelly spent several years teaching ESL in China. Ray currently works primarily for the Navigators of Canada as a community mentor, reaching out to international students; visiting scholars and professors; and immigrants.
He has also been providing Digital Media support for FBHInternational, and HopeStreamRadio since 2011.
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