THE DEPTH OF GOD'S LOVE (1 JOHN 4:7-21)

 

THE DEPTH OF GOD’S LOVE

BIBLE PASSAGE: 1 JOHN 4:7-21

Picture taken from Google

Lesson Prepared by: Krisha of Solomon’s Wisdom FB page

FEBRUARY 06, 2022

MEMORY VERSE

 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him..

1 JOHN 4:16

 

INTRODUCTION:

When we talk about the word “love” we don’t see it in line or connection with God. First, it comes to their minds the love towards their loved ones, girlfriends or boyfriends. Some people give their meanings based on their experiences in life. Most of the times this is said casually especially in other countries. Christians also say, “God loves you” and at some point, we are misunderstood because people don’t see evidence in their lives that they are loved.

 

Today we will study one of the attributes of God; we will look the nature, sovereignty, glory, and His holiness. But in two verses, verse 8 and 6 we’ll find this sentence, “GOD IS LOVE.” In other words, any discussion about love has to start with God because that who He is. It’s God’s identity; therefore, it didn’t start with you and didn’t start with me because love has been there before we were created. God is eternal then love is eternal. Let’s read John 5:17-20.

¹⁷ But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. ¹⁸ Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God. ¹⁹ Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. ²⁰ For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. ²¹ For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. ²² For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: ²³ That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.

We can see so many verses telling the Father loves the Son. In John 3:35 says, “The Father loveth the Son”, in John 10:17 “My Father love Me, in John 15:9 “As the Father Hath love Me” and John 17:23-24 “As thou hast love me… for thou lovest me.” So you see how the Father loves the Son.  The Father loves the Son so much that the connection is so tight that they live in love. It’s all love because that all the environments. The way they love each other makes them glorified The Father loves the Son Then God the Holy Spirit jumped into the plan and said He came to glorify the Son. We can see the Trinitarian Love Fest. They live in love. God does everything to glorify the Son and so is the Son to the Father.

God came to the idea to create the human race. In Ephesians 1:4-6, we can see that created humanity for the love of the Father to the Son for the human race to sing praises to the Son. In John 17: 24 says, “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.”  In tagalog, “Ama, yaong mga ibinigay mo sa akin ay ibig kong kung saan ako naroroon, sila naman ay dumoong kasama ko, upang makita nila ang kaluwalhatian ko, na ibinigay mo sa akin: sapagka't ako'y iyong inibig bago natatag ang sanglibutan.” 

The same way God the Son wants the humanity to give back praises to the Father, the Son leads the humanity to give praises to the Father and tell them to pray to the Father “Our Father who art in heaven. Hallowed be Thy name…” Then the Holy Spirit is there to guide them in prayer. Humanity was created to celebrate God’s love to the Son. John 1: 1 says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Before the foundation of the world, He decided to create us. Jesus has been there since then.

Then, Satan comes in and gets man to sin against God. Somebody has entered to remove us from our created purpose to bring glory to God through our relationship with the Son and interfere with the love affair and man rebel against God. Now people are away from the Son and the Father. Sin needs to deal with- 1 John 4:9-10 say, “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. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” Propitiation means satisfaction, pangpalubag in Tagalog, He sent Jesus Christ to satisfy the problem that would benefit Him.  Father created humanity for the Son then people got messed up. The Father wants to bring the humanity back to the Son so that they glorify Him. Then the Son would glorify Him too. “Only Begotten Son” means one of a kind and unique because nobody who fits the description of deity. God sent the Son to pay the price for all the people.

LESSON OUTLINE:

1.  HE LOVES YOU WHEN YOU WERE TOTALLY WRONG (ROMANS 5:8)

 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

God loves the Son so much that He would willing to sacrifice His Son to die for all the people just to fix the relationship and bring back the people so that the Son would be glorified.

John 13:31 says, “Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him.” Therefore, when the Son is glorified, God is glorified in Him and then the Son glorified the Father. When the problem (fall of man) is fixed, more glory will the Son receive and the Father will be glorified too. John 17:1 says, “These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:”

Sometimes we see the concept of God’s love in one angle and we don’t see the totality of God’s love. Before the fall of man, we can see the love of the Father, the love of the Son, the love of the Holy Spirit in the book of Genesis. When we say God’s love, it’s not just merely the casual love we’re thinking – it’s TRINITARIAN LOVE FEST. We fully see it when the fall of man. To restore the relationship, God the Father sent His Son, the only begotten Son to die for us. After three days, He was risen and Then He went back to heaven. His care for us is there, He doesn’t want to leave comfortless, He sent God the Holy Spirit.

2.  YOU CANNOT HAVE INTIMATE EXPERIENCE WITH GOD IF OTHERS CANNOT HAVE INTIMATE EXPERIENCE WITH YOU (1 JOHN 4: 8, 11, 16)

 ⁸ He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. ¹¹ Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

 

God says, “I AM LOVE” and that’s God’s nature and we can’t change that. Love is seeking the best for another. The Father is seeking the best for His Son and seeking the best for His Son, He created the human race to seek the best for Him. When the human race seeks the best for Him, the Son, then the Son gives the Father more glory.

 

Illustration: If we hang out at the flower shop, the smell of flowers rubs on you. If we hang out at a perfume store, you start the smelling like cologne.  Your environment affects how you look or smell. If God is love and that’s His nature and you are in the environment where love is the nature, then you smell like the environment you hang out with. Then if we are loveless Christian, then we are not in the environment of God’s nature. If you are not loving

God will determine how much he deals with you by how much you deal with others. Let’s read again verse 8, “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love,” in verse 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,” in verse 16, “And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him,” and in verse 20, “If a man says, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” So, we cannot have intimate experience with God if others cannot have intimate experience with you.  If we do not know how to love or refuse to love, we won’t feel His love. He restricts the experience of Himself to believers who are functioning in love as a lifestyle. God is love and that’s Who He is and so He hangs out with love. So, since He is love and He only hangs out with love if that’s not how you row, He cannot hang out with us. He won’t hang out that something that’s does not like Him. Who we are and who He is even though we’re God’s child; because He talks to Christians, He says, “We ought to love one another”- Love in the family of God. That’s why the devil can make you selfish, hateful, mean, nasty and unforgiving because you won’t hang out to God. Bible says, “And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” He that dwell (hang out) in love, God dwells in us. The more you love, the more you’re in the environment He’s comfortable with. So, if it’s only “ME, MYSELF AND I,” if it’s “Being blessed but not being a blessing” or it’s only about you. If it’s only about you then you’re not hang out with God because God is love. If we want to hang out with God, we need to hang out with love. One of the reasons why many Christians are not experiencing God is because they are loveless saints. They don’t ask the question, who can I love today or how can I love today in the family of God? We cannot love everybody, but we can love somebody. To love means is a decision. Love is different from like. Like is a feeling therefore don’t say, “I love chocolate” instead “I like chocolate.” Biblical LOVE is a decision regardless of an emotion. In emotion, you may love something you like but you can also love stuff you don’t like. You don’t feel good about it, but you made a decision regarding it. You made a decision to eat vegetable, you may not like it, but you love healthy food and nutrition. Because you love that, you choose and decide to eat what you don’t like. So, love is the decision to compassionately, righteously and responsibly seek the well-being of another. God does that with His Son. To love God means to passionately seek His glory. The more glory of God you seek, the more you are loving God and the more compassion to others you give to the more you are loving people. When God sees the compassion, he translates that to passion so that His passion can refer to your compassion so that His love can enter your love so that we can get more of Him.

 

In 1 John 3:18, 22 and 23 say, “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.”

Based on these verses, the way to get you’re a prayer answered is to start loving.

In verses 34 and 35 of John chapter 3 say, “³⁴ A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. ³⁵ By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”  How can other people know that you are Christ’s disciples or truly Christians? It’s not how you sing, it’s not how you talk, but it’s because how we love one another.

 

CONCLUSION:

Let’s see the story in Luke 15, the prodigal son. Remember God demonstrated His love to us when we didn’t deserve it- but while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. We know the story, he decided to coming back home and asked for forgiveness. When he was seen by his father – “But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.” Then to make the story short, the father threw a party but the older brother wasn’t happy about it. We can see in verse 28 and forward:

²⁸ And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and intreated him. ²⁹ And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends: ³⁰ But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. ³¹ And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine

But the father said, “It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.”

The story ends there with that father’s reply but we never know what the older brother does. He needs to decide to hang out with his father or not because his father will go hang out with that’s brother that comes home. What’s the point? Be careful with older Christians, sometimes we ourselves think “we’re better” and don’t hang out with folks who have been forgiven and who’ve been redeemed and don’t hang out with compassion for those lives who have been broken and beaten. Actually we will know better when Jesus died for us. In fact, if it wasn’t for Jesus you would be the same person as you are right now.