Love and the Bible

1. Love and the Bible – 25th
November2016
“Dearfriends, letus loveone another, for love comesfrom God.Everyone who loves hasbeen bornof
Godand knowsGod”(1John4:7).
As Christians,where ever we may come across the word ‘Love’ itimmediately refers to Jesus Christbecausewe
know Him through the Love that He displaysfor all of us. The Biblehas a great deal to say about love. In fact, the
Biblesays that“love is of God” and “God is love” as we can learn from 1 John 4:7–8, “Dear friends, let us love one
another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does
not love does not know God, because God is love.“ In other words, loveis a fundamental characteristic of who
God is.Everything God does is impelled and influenced by His love.
There is also a distinctword for the type of love that God displays.In the Greek, this word is agape,and it refers to
a benevolent and charitablelovethat seeks the best for the loved one. This loveis represented by God's love for
us. Itis a non-partial,sacrificial loveprobably bestexemplified by God's provision for our rebellion:"For God so
loved (agape) the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish,
but have eternal life." (John 3:16). The gift of God's son as a provision for sin was given to all humans,regardless
of who we are. God's loveis unconditional.
We can note that the Bibleuses several different words for “love” in the Hebrew and Greek, interchangingthem
depending on context. Some of these words mean “affectionate love”; others indicate“friendship”; and still
others, “passionate love.” The Bible gives many examples of love: the caringprovision of Boazfor Ruth; the deep
friendship of David and Jonathan; the poetic, passionateloveof Solomon and the Shulamite; the enduring
commitment of Hosea to Gomer; the fatherly love of Paul for Timothy and John for the church; and, of course,the
sacrificial,savingloveof Christfor the elect.
Agape, the benevolent, selfless lovethatGod shows,is mentioned often in the New Testament, includingin the
“love chapter,” which is in reference 1 Corinthians 13. There, love’s characteristicsarelisted:“Love is patient, love
is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is
not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It
always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.8 Love never fails. But where there are
prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass
away” (1 Corinthians 13:4–8). Further in the sanepassagewe find that it tells us: “And now these three remain:
faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13).
The Biblesays thatGod was motivated by love to savethe world:“For God so loved the world….” as we read in
(John 3:16).God’s love is best seen in the sacrificeof Christon our behalf as said in 1 John 4:9, “This is how God
showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him”. And
God’s love does not require us to be “worthy” to receive it; His love is truly benevolent and gracious:“God
demonstrates his own love for us in this: Whilewe were still sinners,Christdied for us” as we can learn from
Romans 5:8.
We can learn again where the Biblesays that, sincetrue love is partof God’s nature, God is the sourceof love. He
is the initiator of a lovingrelationship with us.Any love we have for God is simply a responseto His sacrificial
(Agape) love for us:“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning
sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10). Our human understandingof love is flawed,weak, and incomplete, but the
more we look at Jesus, the better we understand true love.
The Biblesays thatGod’s love for us in Christhas resulted in our being brought into His family: “See what great
love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason

2. the world does not know us is that it did not know him.!” (1 John 3:1). Just as the father in the parableshowed
love to his prodigal son (Luke 15:11–32), so our Heavenly Father receives us with joy when we come to Him in
faith.He makes us “accepted in the Beloved” as we can learn from Ephesians 1:6,“…to the praise of his glorious
grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.”
We can learn more about how Love is stated in the Bible.It says thatwe areto love others the way that God loves
us. We are to love the family of God as stated in 1 Peter 2:17, “Show proper respect to everyone, love the family
of believers, fear God, honor the emperor”. We are to love our enemies—that is,we are to actively seek what is
best for them and avail itfromwhat you can provide. “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who
persecute you, (Matthew 5:44). Husbands areto love their wives as Christloves the church as we can learn from
Ephesians 5:25,“ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her”. As we
show benevolent, selfless love,we reflect God’s love to a lostand dying world.“We love because he firstloved us .
God was not simply reciprocatingHis love…on the contrary we arerequired to do so.It is He who initiated it:“We
love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19).
From the biblewe can learn where Jesus said: “If you love me, keep my commands” (John 14:15).Italso saysthat
that our love for God is related to our obedience of Him: “For this is the love of God, that we keep his
commandments: and his commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3; cf. We serve God out of love for Him.
And God’s love for us enables us to obey Him freely, without the burden of guiltor the fear of punishment. We can
also learn that“perfect lovedrives out fear” becausefear is related to punishment. The gospels tell us that the one
who fears is notmade perfect in love. We can learn this from 1 John 4:18 “There is no fear in love. But perfect love
drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love”. The
dismissal of the fear of condemnation is one of the main functions of God’s love. The person without Christis
under judgment and has plenty to fear as said in John 3:18, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but
whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one
and only Son.”
Therefore when a person is in Christ,the fear of judgment is gone. Part of understandingthe love of God is
knowing that God’s judgment fell on Jesus at the cross so we can be spared.Jesus described Himself as the Savior:
“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John
3:17). This tells us that the only person who must fear judgment is the one who rejects Jesus Christ.
The Biblesays thatnothing can separate the believer from the love of God in Christ as we can learn from Romans
8:38–39, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the
future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us
from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” God’s love does not wax and wane; itis not a fickle,
emotional sensation.God’s love for sinners is why Christdied on the cross.God’s lovefor those who trust in Christ
is why He holds them in His hand and promises never to let them go as stated in John 10:29,“My Father, who has
given them to me, is greater than all no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand”.