God is love

John 3 for the read John in July challenge

Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; ² this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” ³ Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

⁴ Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” ⁵ Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. ⁶ That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷ Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ ⁸ The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

⁹ Nicodemus said to Him, “How can these things be?” ¹⁰ Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things? ¹¹ Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony. ¹² If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? ¹³ No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man. ¹⁴ As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; ¹⁵ so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.

¹⁶ “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. ¹⁸ He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. ¹⁹ This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. ²⁰ For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. ²¹ But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”

²² After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea, and there He was spending time with them and baptizing. ²³ John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there; and people were coming and were being baptized— ²⁴ for John had not yet been thrown into prison.

²⁵ Therefore there arose a discussion on the part of John’s disciples with a Jew about purification. ²⁶ And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified, behold, He is baptizing and all are coming to Him.” ²⁷ John answered and said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven. ²⁸ You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent ahead of Him.’ ²⁹ He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made full. ³⁰ He must increase, but I must decrease.

³¹ “He who comes from above is above all, he who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. ³² What He has seen and heard, of that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony. ³³ He who has received His testimony has set his seal to this, that God is true. ³⁴ For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure. ³⁵ The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand. ³⁶ He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

As we continue to see the qualities and character of God revealed in the gospel of John, we will be with what is perhaps the most well known and frequently quoted verse in all of scripture. John 3:16 says:  “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”  Love is certainly one of God’s most well known characteristics.   1 John 4:7-8 says: Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.   God is love. 1 John 4:19 says:  We love, because He first loved us.  We, in our society and culture, have a watered down our understanding of love. We use that same word, love, to describe how we feel about other people, spouses, children, parents and grand-parents and how we feel about pizza, our favorite song, movie or sports team. It is vital that we fully understand what God’s love is and what it cost Him. Romans 5:8 says:  God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  God gave His only begotten Son. The demonstration of God’s love is in the suffering and sacrifice of Christ on the cross. God’s love is far more than a feeling or emotion.

1 Corinthians 13 is often called the love chapter. It describes what true love is. Verses 4-8 say:  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.  Since God is love, we then can interchange God for the word love in the verses. God is patient, God is kind. God does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; God does not seek His 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. God never fails.  Perhaps you caught that I took out the part about jealous. In Exodus 20:5 God says:  I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. 

Returning though to the rest of the description, we see how God and God’s true love differs from what the world says love looks like. The world says that if we love, we should tolerate and embrace whatever things people choose. God does not tolerate affection for other gods. He does not rejoice in unrighteousness. He does not act unbecomingly.  Christians are often called hypocrites because we don’t love as the world says we should. Romans 12:9 says:  Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.  This brings us to the other part of God’s character revealed in John 3. Verses 35-36 say:  “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”  God is love, but there is also a characteristic of wrath in God’s nature.  God’s wrath is toward sin and unrighteousness. He so loved the world that He sent Jesus to redeem us from sin, so that we would not experience His wrath.  It is important to remember though that on the cross, Jesus redeemed sinners, not sin. When we recognize how great a sacrifice Jesus paid to redeem us from sin, we can understand that God hates sin and unrighteousness because of its great cost. John 3:16, is again perhaps the most quoted verse in all of scripture, but it is seldom quoted in the full context of what Jesus said. Verses 16-21 say: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”  I’ve said that as we read through the gospel of John we will know God and Christ better, as we know them more we will love them more. We each have a choice to embrace God’s love and redemption or to reject His love and know His wrath.

Thank You heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ and precious Holy Spirit, for the demonstration of true love, that Jesus suffered and died to redeem us from sin. May I like you, put my name in the description of love:  Because of the cross, I am patient, kind and not jealous; I do not brag, I am not arrogant, do not act unbecomingly; I do not seek my own, I’m not provoked, do not take into account a wrong suffered, do not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoice with the truth; I bears all things, believe all things, hope all things and endure all things.Love never fails.   I love because You first loved me.  Amen.