Devotion

The love of God is perhaps the most abused and misrepresented divine attribute by contemporary Christians. Many self-identifying Christians tend to use the love of God as a license to justify unrepentant sin or a means of dismissing the other less-popular attributes of God. There is a great need in the present day for a retrieval of how the Bible portrays this marvelous perfection of the Most High. What is the love of God, and how does Scripture describe “Godly love?”

Love can be defined broadly as the conscious, sacrificial and volitional commitment to the welfare of another person, in obedience to God’s Word (2 John 6), regardless of that person’s response or what one does or does not receive from him or her, or regardless of what love costs one to give (MacArthur Biblical Doctrine Citation). Although love often involves emotional connotations, the Bible primarily defines love as a determined act of the will. Consider the most poignant illustration of love in the entirety of God’s Word: “Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8a).

Love is one of the many glorious attributes that are coterminous with God’s own being (1 John 4:8). Scripture attests that the eternal God, in Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is the fullness of all of His divine perfections (Exodus 3:14). The Bible teaches us that the chief attribute that describes the triune God’s eternal relationship within Himself is love (1 John 4:16). The Father eternally loves the Son, the Son eternally loves the Father, and the Holy Spirit is the mutual love of the Father and the Son (John 17:20-26). This blessed communion of eternal love within the being of God Himself is the origin and source of all things in creation (Romans 11:33-36). Thus, when we think about God as those who have been created in His image, we must recognize that our very existence is a testimony to us being the undeserving recipients of God’s unfathomable love (Genesis 1:31).

Despite being God’s enemies by virtue of our descent from Adam and our innumerable transgressions committed against Him, the Most High still showers sinful humanity with the riches of His lovingkindness (Psalm 145:9). Even the most ardent, God-hating sinner in human history has benefited greatly from God’s immutably good will towards His creation (Acts 14:17). The enjoyment of a delicious meal, the enjoyment of the covenant of marriage, the enjoyment of good health and the enjoyment of beautiful weather are just a few of the many blessings that Christians and non-Christians alike are able to enjoy in this life, solely as an expression of God’s inexhaustible love for His creatures (Matthew 5:44-45). Yet, the greatest enjoyment of God’s love is exclusively reserved for those who belong to Him (Deuteronomy 7:6-8). Because of the perfect life, substitutionary death, bodily resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ, all Believers are lavished in the love of a Heavenly Father (Romans 4:1-25). In all of human history, there has never been a greater or more clear expression of love than that of which God has put on display in His plan to reconcile sinners to Himself (Romans 5:6-11).

At the moment one repents of their sins and places their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as their only hope of being forgiven by God, they are adopted into God’s family and are granted the inestimable privilege of being called “children of God” (John 1:12-13). In a very real sense, as a husband and wife become “one” upon their marital union, so also Believers, as the bride of Christ, are made “one” with the Lord Jesus Christ at the moment they are saved (Ephesians 5:22-33). This union with Christ is grounded in God’s sovereign electing purposes in eternity past (Ephesians 1:3-14), is established on the basis of all that Jesus Christ accomplished on behalf of His people as their covenant Head (Romans 5:12-21) and becomes temporally realized in a person’s life at the moment they come to saving faith in Him (Romans 6:3-11; Galatians 2:20-21). Believers are so closely identified with Christ through their union that when God the Father looks upon them, He sees nothing less than the perfect righteousness of His own dear Son imputed to them (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Through this union, all Believers receive the indwelling Holy Spirit, serving as a divine pledge to impart the gifts of justification, adoption, sanctification, and glorification to them (Romans 8:28-39). The saving love of God produces a transition of cosmic proportions: the God who was previously their greatest source of danger becomes their greatest source of delight; their greatest adversary becomes their greatest advocate; their judge becomes their justifier; their greatest foe becomes their Father in Heaven; their sentence of eternal condemnation by God is replaced with the promise of eternal communion with God. Who can begin to plumb the depths of the love that the triune God has lavished upon His people?

It is through the Christian’s steadfast contemplation of God’s love enjoyed within Himself in addition to reflecting upon the saving love that has been shown to them in Christ that ultimately causes the Believer to manifest the love of God to others in their life (Galatians 5:24-25).  Having personally encountered the love of God for themselves, followers of Jesus Christ not only come to the point of exhibiting a love for God, but also begin to direct their affections toward the good of their neighbor (John 13:34-35). This is to say, the Christian reflects God’s love in their own life, becoming the vehicle through which the love of God can be tangibly manifested by the outworking of the Holy Spirit within them (Romans 5:5). This is surely what the Apostle Paul had in mind when he said: “Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died… We are, therefore, Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:14, 20).

How is God’s wonderful love evidenced in your life today?

Weekly Passages For Meditation:

Monday- 1 John 3:1-6

See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

4 Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. 5 You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. 6 No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him.

Tuesday- 1 John 4:7-21

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 14 We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. 19 We love, because He first loved us. 20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.

Wednesday- Psalm 136:1-14

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good,

For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

2 Give thanks to the God of gods,

For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

3 Give thanks to the Lord of lords,

For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

4 To Him who alone does great wonders,

For His lovingkindness is everlasting;

5 To Him who made the heavens with skill,

For His lovingkindness is everlasting;

6 To Him who spread out the earth above the waters, For His lovingkindness is everlasting;

7 To Him who made the great lights,

For His lovingkindness is everlasting:

8 The sun to rule by day,

For His lovingkindness is everlasting,

9 The moon and stars to rule by night,

For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

10 To Him who smote the Egyptians in their firstborn,For His lovingkindness is everlasting,

11 And brought Israel out from their midst,

For His lovingkindness is everlasting,

12 With a strong hand and an outstretched arm, For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

13 To Him who divided the Red Sea asunder, For His lovingkindness is everlasting,

14 And made Israel pass through the midst of it, For His lovingkindness is everlasting

Thursday- Psalm 136:15-26

15 But He overthrew Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea, For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

16 To Him who led His people through the wilderness, For His lovingkindness is everlasting;

17 To Him who smote great kings,

For His lovingkindness is everlasting,

18 And slew mighty kings,

For His lovingkindness is everlasting:

19 Sihon, king of the Amorites,

For His lovingkindness is everlasting,

20 And Og, king of Bashan,

For His lovingkindness is everlasting,

21 And gave their land as a heritage,

For His lovingkindness is everlasting,

22 Even a heritage to Israel His servant,

For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

23 Who remembered us in our low estate,

For His lovingkindness is everlasting,

24 And has rescued us from our adversaries,For His lovingkindness is everlasting;

25 Who gives food to all flesh,

For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

26 Give thanks to the God of heaven,

For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

Friday- John 15:1-11

15 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. 9 Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. 11 These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.

Saturday- John 15:12-27

12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. 17 This I command you, that you love one another. 18 “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. 21 But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 He who hates Me hates My Father also. 24 If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well. 25 But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’ 26 “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that isthe Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me, 27 and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.