GOD IS LOVE Devotion 9 of 34 – Tomorrow:
"He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love . . . God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." (1 John 4:8,16)
"Herein is love, not that we loved God . . . " (1 John 4:10)
If we want to take hold of the greatness of love, and see it in its fulness, we must not look for its definition or primary exhibition among men. While there have been great men and women of God who loved Him, their love was a reflected love, and not the substance of love itself. "In this is love," the Spirit affirms, "NOT that we loved God."
If we peruse our love for God, we will not find the adequacy that we our selves desire, to say nothing of the desires of the God of heaven. In our love there will not be a satisfactory demonstration of love's greatness, or of its marvelous sufficiency. An analysis of your own love for God will not yield a rich harvest of satisfaction. It will not prove your own love to be a noble example for everyone else to follow. Real love is not defined by our love for God: "Herein is love, NOT that we loved God."
You can read the inspired commentary on love itself in First Corinthians thirteen. "Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails" (13:4-8). When you read this with yourself in mind, it is convicting. When you read it with God in mind, it is comforting. If you lay this text along side your own love, it will show weaknesses. If you lay it beside God's love it shows strength. If you look at this text in view of your love, it becomes an exhortation. If you see it in view of God's love it becomes a proclamation. For man, this text is an objective. For God, it is an accomplishment and a definition. "Herein is love, NOT that we loved God."
Several things are revealed in this expression. First, in the sense of this text, God does not love us BECAUSE we love Him. I understand there is a sense in which the depth of Divine love is experienced as a result our receptivity to Christ. As Jesus Himself said, "If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and MY FATHER WILL LOVE HIM, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him" (John 14:23). Nevertheless, our love of Jesus is not a defining love. It is not an initial love. It is not the origination of love. It is not the fulness of love – and our text is speaking of love in the sense of definition, being initiated, originated, and in its fulness. God's tender love toward us is free, or gratuitous. It moved Him to do something for which we made no request. He provided a Savior and a remedy that met a condition He Himself defined and declared.
Second, we are the ones who need to be constrained, or moved, to love, not God. Our love must be awakened, as it was, and strong incentives given to take hold on God and His Son. But it is not so with God. He is motivated by His own magnanimous nature, for "God IS love." Our nature is not the constraining factor in our love for God, but rather God's love for us. "We love Him BECAUSE He first loved us."
Notice also that he draws no comparison between man's love for man and God's love for man. Rather, the Spirit compares man's love for God with God's love for man. He straightly tells us that our love for God is not the greatest exhibit of love. We ought not to spend our time studying love from the human point of view, for the real profit will not be gained by such an approach. We may study how Peter, James, John, and Paul loved Christ. Such a study will confirm their love was no doubt greater than our own. It may even produce a challenge for you also to love the Lord as they did. But you will not be able to sustain your love for God by a consideration of how much great saints of God loved Him. Such attentions will not provide sufficient incentive for us to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Our focus must be upon God's love for us.
If it is our desire to improve in our own love for God, then we must give ourselves to the consideration of His love for us. His love saw us and pitied us in our wretched condition. His love moved Him to provide a salvation that allowed us to be made righteous, and yet do so without compromising any part of His own character. His love provided a salvation that allowed Him to justify us, and be just in doing so. His love moved Him to send His Son into the world at great personal expense, to say nothing of what it cost the Son Himself. His love moved Him to lay our awful iniquities upon the Lord Jesus, and then curse Him in order that we might be delivered from His curse. His love constrained Him to raise Jesus from the dead and place Him at His own right hand, in order that He might bring the ones He loved to glory. His love compels Him to not allow us to be tempted above what we are able to bear, and to even provide a way of escape, that all temptations may be borne without sinning.
The love of God, particularly as displayed in His "great salvation," must be held before men continually. It has motivating power. It has encouraging power. It has lifting power. "Herein is love, NOT that we loved God."
PRAYER POINT: Father, in the name of Jesus, deliver me from placing an inordinate value upon my love for You, or the love of others for You. Teach me to define love by Your love, and to think more fully about that great love.