Does God Really Love Us? Series

Scripture

All in the Family was a popular 1970s CBS TV series that made the curmudgeonly Archie Bunker a household name. In one scene, Archie’s son-in-law, Michael, and his wife, Gloria, are in the kitchen. Michael is eating a sandwich and Gloria is baking cookies. Gloria asks him, “Michael, do you love me?”

“Yup,” he manages in between bites.

“Would you give up your life for me?” she asks.

“Right after I finish this sandwich.”

“Ma saw this movie on TV. It takes place in the desert. The husband gives up his life so his wife can live. I was just wondering if you would do the same for me.”

“Sure, honey. If we’re ever in the Sahara desert together, you got my life. You got any pickles?”

Gloria sighs and says, “Michael, I’m serious. I mean, if we were stranded in the desert, and we had just enough water for one of us, what would you do?”

“I’d flip you for it.”

Gloria is visually exasperated, so Michael adds: “Well honey, what do you want from me? That is a very difficult question to answer. Not many people know how they’d react in a life-and-death situation.”

“Okay, forget the desert,” she says. “Let’s say we’re out in the ocean, and there’s this shark coming at us. Would you swim in front of it to save me?”

“How big is the shark?”

“He’s big. He’s a man-eating shark.”

“Well, then maybe you should swim in front of it to save me.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s a man-eating shark. You didn’t say woman-eating shark.”

At this point Gloria has about had enough. “I’m just trying to find out how much you care for me!”

“I care for you, honey. If you care for me, you’ll let me finish this sandwich.”

Gloria grabs the sandwich out of his hands and looks him in the eye glaringly: “Michael, we are lost in the mountains. This is our only food – our only chance for survival. Would you give me this sandwich?”

“I wouldn’t have to. You’d take it from me.”

“Michael! I just want to hear you say you’d give up your life for me. Would you say it?”

Gloria angrily walks out of the kitchen and into the living room. Michael follows her.

She looks back at him again, saying, “Just say you’d lay down your life for me.”

“This is ridiculous. How did we get into this?”

“Just say the words, Michael!”

Michael finally gives in, exhausted by the whole conversation. “All right! All right! I’d lay down my life for you!”

We chuckle at this scene. Gloria desperately wants to know if her husband Michael truly loves her.

Sometimes Christians may wonder, “Does God really love me?” In today’s Scripture, the Apostle John writes to reassure his readers of God’s love for us.

Let’s read 1 John 4:7-12:

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have 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 ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. (1 John 4:7-12)

Introduction

In his commentary on First John, David Jackman writes, “The last three words of verse 8 form one of the most profound statements of the whole Bible and perhaps for many people today one of the hardest to believe. God is love.” When we consider that there are almost 8 billion presently living on planet Earth, can we talk meaningfully about God loving us? According to the Population Reference Bureau, “about 117 billion members of our species have ever been born on Earth.” It is hard even to conceive of such a large number of people. And again we wonder if God really loves us.

Yet, John insists that God is love. And because God is sovereign and supreme over all creation, we must not think that God is too great to be bothered with each one of us. Indeed, God is so great that he is concerned about each one of us individually.

Lesson

First John 4:7-12 gives us three evidences of God’s love for us.

Let’s use the following outline:

1. God’s Love for Us Is Seen in the New Birth of Christians (4:7-8)

2. God’s Love for Us Is Seen in the Death of Jesus (4:9-10)