Introduction:
A. The late television personality Art Linkletter became famous for his refreshing and humorous conversations with children.
1. One of his most memorable exchanges took place when he asked a little boy about the picture he was drawing.
2. The little boy said: “It’s a picture of God.”
3. When Linkletter told the boy that no one knows what God looks like, the boy confidently replied, “Well, They will when I get done with my picture.”
B. Let’s give the little guy and “E” for effort – his desire to show people what God looks like is admirable.
1. There’s certainly a lot we don’t know about God and His appearance, but there are many things we do know about God.
2. In our sermon series “It’s All About God,” we have been trying to get a better glimpse of who God is and what God is like, so that we can be more like God and reflect God appropriately.
3. During our series, we have been learning about God’s glory, and God’s holiness, and God’s eternal nature and unchanging nature.
4. Today, we want to focus on the fact that God is love.
C. Max Lucado opens his chapter on this attribute of God with an interesting story about the Edwards Aquifer that lays several hundred feet under his house in San Antonio, TX.
1. It caused me to wonder about any aquifers here in the Syracuse area, and it looks like there is a good-sized aquifer under Baldwinsville.
2. Here in CNY, we get most of our fresh water from lakes, like Ontario and Skaneateles.
3. The Edwards Aquifer in South Texas is 175 miles long and it is full of fresh water to quench people’s thirst, fill their swimming pools, and irrigate farms and lawns.
4. The interesting thing about that aquifer is that no one knows how deep it is and therefore they have no idea about how many gallons of water it contains.
5. That unmeasured pool caused Max to think about another unmeasured pool – the pool of God’s love.
6. In one of the most beautiful prayers that Paul wrote in one of his letters to the churches, he wrote: I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, and to know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:17b-19)
7. God’s love is so long and wide, and high and deep, that it surpasses knowledge, yet through that love we can be filled with the fulness of God and can never run dry!
8. Consider these words from a hymn written by Mary Bowley Peters, titled “Whom Have We, Lord, but Thee”: “Whom have we, Lord, but Thee, soul thirst to satisfy. Exhaustless spring, the water is free, all other streams are dry.”
9. God’s love is an exhaustless spring, welling up deep inside of us, so that we never run dry.
10. The aquifer of God’s love is truly beyond measure and cannot be exhausted.
D. During this sermon series, we have been emphasizing that it is all about God, and it’s not about us.
1. But to say, “It’s not about us” is not to say that we are not loved.
2. It’s because God loves us that it’s not supposed to be about us, because God’s knows what is best for us.
3. Even though God’s love for us to too big to measure, I want to urge us to trust in it.
4. All of us need God’s love and are hungry for love.
5. Unfortunately, some people who should have loved us didn’t and some who could have loved us wouldn’t.
6. Some of us have been left at the hospital, or left at the altar, or left with an empty bed or a broken heart.
7. And we are left with the question: “Does anybody love me?”
8. God’s answer to us is: “I am love and I love you.”
E. But what does it mean that “God is love”?
1. Notice that I have entitled this sermon “Our God is love” rather than “Our God is a Loving God.”
2. The reason is because when we talk of the love of God, it is more than just describing him as “loving.”
3. We can call God loving (because He is), but we can also call our wives or husbands as loving.
4, But I cannot say about my wife, “Diana is love” - that is something that is true only of God.
5. This statement – “God is love” is simple enough to be understood even by those who are still children in the faith, yet it is profound enough to exhaust the mind of scholars and theologians.
6. Well-known theologian D. A. Carson wrote a book entitled The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God so the statement God is love must not be that simple if it required a book with that title.
7. A. W. Tozer refers to trying to understand the love of God as “trying to take the ocean in your arms, or embrace the atmosphere, or rise to the stars.”
8. To say that “God is love” means that love is an essential attribute of God’s being.
9. It also means that in God is the summation of all love, so that all love comes from God.
10. We will not understand what it means to love apart from God and we cannot love God or others apart from God.
11. Therefore, God is love and God wants us to see this necessary part of His being so that we will admire Him for who He is and so that we will all strive to be like Him.
12. To completely understand what it means that “God is love,” we need to understand four ways that “God is love” is interconnected.
I. “God is love” is seen in God loving God
A. Of all the things we need to understand about love, this must be primary.
1. What is most important is not God’s love for us, rather it is God’s love for God, the persons of the Godhead.
2. God’s love for Himself is His commitment to do all things necessary to bring glory to His own name and to bring glory to the other persons in the Godhead.
3. God loves us because He first loves Himself so much.
4. If God is love, then God is the most lovable being in the universe, and He must love Himself.
B. Where do we see these truths in Scripture?
1. The Bible reveals that Jesus, the Son of God, is loved by God the Father, and that Jesus the Son loves God the Father.
2. Jesus said: “For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing” (Jn. 5:20).
3. Jesus said: “I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father” (Jn. 14:31).
4. This love relationship between Father and Son began even before the creation of the world.
5. Jesus said: “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they will see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the world’s foundation” (Jn. 17:24).
C. We must think about and understand God’s love for God Himself before thinking about God’s love for us, but this is not common or natural for us to do.
1. We will have a better appreciation for the love God has for us if we will meditate on God’s love for God.
2. Take time and let this profound truth take its place in your mind and heart.
3. God is love and God is in a loving relationship with Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
4. A few verses later in John 17, Jesus continued His prayer to the Father saying: “I made your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love you have loved me with may be in them and I may be in them” (Jn. 17:26).
5. Isn’t it amazing that Jesus was praying that the same love the Father has for the Son will be in us?
6. God loves us with the same love that He loved Jesus, and Jesus wants that love to be in us.
7. But we must realize that before there is a love relationship between God and us, there already exists a love relationship between God and God and God – God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
8. We must never think that God created us because He needed someone to love Him or that He needed someone that He could express His love to.
9. God already was love and had loving relationships before the creation of the world and humankind.
10. Therefore, first of all, “God is love” is seen in God loving God.
II. “God is love” is seen in God loving His children
A. God’s love for us is an overflow of the fact that He is love, and it is His commitment to do all that is necessary to give to us what is deeply and infinitely and eternally satisfying – He gives us Himself.
1. Let’s look at what the Apostle John wrote in 1 John 4:8-10: 8 The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
2. God didn’t just send Jesus in the world, rather God gave Jesus as a gift of love.
3. That’s what John 3:16 says: For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
4. When you love someone, you give them gifts – and the more precious the gift, the deeper and greater the expression of that love.
5. Because of God’s love for us God gave His most precious gift to us and it cost Him greatly.
6. It was truly an extravagant and surprising gift.
a. Paul wrote: “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).
b. Who would you be willing to offer your son or daughter to save? Not too many. Certainly not enemies or unworthy sinners like you and me, right?
C. But God gave His Son for unworthy sinners like you and me.
B. Why did God give His most precious Son for us? So that we might have life through Him.
1. Jesus became the atoning sacrifice for our sins, so that we could receive forgiveness and receive His righteousness.
2. Peter put it this way: “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Pet. 3:18).
3. All of this gives us abundant life and eternal life.
4. And what is the essence of eternal life? Jesus said: “And this is eternal life: that they may know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3).
5. Knowing God and having a loving relationship with God is what earthly life and eternal life is all about!
C. So what is the greatest evidence that God loves us?
1. Is the greatest evidence of God’s love the fact that God gave you a good family, or because God gave you a good education, or because God healed you or provided your physical needs?
2. No, the greatest evidence of God’s love is that He gave His Son so that our sins can be forgiven and we can be with God for eternity?
3. When we need evidence of God’s love for us, we don’t need to look anywhere but the cross of Christ, and when we see Jesus on the cross, we hear Him saying: “God loves you this much!”
4. So, “God is love” is seen first, in God loving God, and second, in God loving His children.”
III. “God is love” is seen in God being loved by His children.
A. When we understand God’s love for Himself and God’s love for us, the right response is that we love God in return.
1. When we love God, we are testifying that God is love.
2. When we love God, we are telling the whole world how deeply satisfying God is to us.
B. The point of verse 10 that we read earlier: “Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us” is that God’s love for us came first before our love for him.
1. We must never say that God loves us because we love Him.
2. Love always starts with God – He loved us first and has given us the capacity to love Him.
3. The first thing in the list of the fruit of the Holy Spirit is love (Gal. 5:22).
4. The Holy Spirit enables us to love.
5. As God’s children, we are filled with God’s love and we love God in return.
6. Peter wrote: “Though you have not seen him, you love him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy” (1 Pet. 1:8).
C. Our love for God is not revealed in heartfelt emotions, but in our obedience to God’s commands.
1. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commands” (John 14:15).
2. John wrote: For this is what love for God is: to keep his commands. And his commands are not a burden…(1 John 5:3).
3. It is so important for us to try to be consistent in our profession of love for God in worship and our demonstration of our love for God in carrying out His commands in life.
4. God is not pleased when we sing “I love you, Lord” but knowingly disobey God’s commands when worship is over.
D. Because God loves Himself, and because God loves us, let’s do our best to be lovers of God in return.
1. Let’s love the Lord with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind and with all our strength. (Mt. 22:37)
2. Let’s love God more than we love anyone or anything else, because God is love.
IV. Finally, “God is love” is seen in His children loving one another.
A. This final point is an extension of the last point – because loving each other is one of God’s primary commands.
1. When Jesus was asked which is the most important commandment, His answer included two: Love God and Love your neighbor as yourself (Mt. 22:34-40).
2. Let’s return to the passage in 1 John 4 that we looked at earlier and see how John connects the fact that God is love, and that God loves us, with our need to love one another.
3. John wrote: 7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and his love is made complete in us. (1 Jn. 4:7-12)
4. John continues in verses 19-21: 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and yet hates his brother or sister, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother or sister whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And we have this command from him: The one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.
B. If we are commanded to love our enemies, how much more our brothers and sisters in Christ.
1. Our love for each other is a mark of a true child of God and is evidence that “God is love.”
2. Our love for one another is an overflow of God’s love for us and is an expression of our love for God.
3. When we are so consumed by God’s love for us, then we will find it easier to love others – even when those others are hard to love.
4. Hatred has no place in the heart and life of a Christian – God will not allow us to love Him and hate others – those things cannot go hand in hand.
5. This love we should have for each other isn’t just a warm fuzzy feeling in our hearts, rather it is the practical expression of love, which may include physical help or spiritual correction.
6. Our love for each other affirms that our God is love.
Conclusion:
A. So, what does it mean that God is love?
1. Love is an attribute of God – it is a core aspect of God's character, His Person.
2. God's love is in no sense in conflict with His holiness, righteousness, justice, or even His wrath.
3. All of God's attributes are in perfect harmony.
4. Everything God does is loving, just as everything He does is just and right.
5. God is the perfect example of true love.
6. Amazingly, God has given those who receive His Son Jesus as their Savior the ability to love as He does, through the power of the Holy Spirit and it is our duty to love in a way that makes it clear that God is love.
7. But equally amazing, God gives every person the right to reject God’s love.
B. The story is told of a preacher and his friend who were walking through a poor section of the city one day.
1. The friend was a barber and also was an atheist.
2. He said to the preacher: “This is why I cannot believe in a God of love. If God was as kind and loving as you say, He would not permit all this poverty, disease, and squalor. He would not allow these poor bums to be addicted to dope and other character-destroying habits. No, I cannot believe in a God who permits these things.”
3. The preacher was silent until they met a man who was especially unkempt and filthy - his hair was hanging down his neck and he had a half-inch of stubble on his face.
4. Then the preacher said to his barber friend: “You can’t be a very good barber or you wouldn’t permit a man like that to continue living in this neighborhood without a haircut and a shave.”
5. Indignantly the barber answered: “Why blame me for that man’s condition? I can’t help it that he is like that. He has never come in my shop. I could fix him up and make him look like a gentleman!”
6. The preacher replied: “Then don’t blame God for allowing the people to continue in their evil ways, when God loves them and is constantly inviting them to come and be saved, but they refuse.”
C. What about you? Have you responded to the gift of God’s love and received the salvation that is found in Jesus?
1. If not you can do so through expressing your faith, repenting and being baptized into Jesus.
2. If you have received the gift of God’s love, are you truly loving God and loving others in return?
3. God is love – let’s receive His love, rest in it, and pass it on to others!
Resources:
• It’s Not About Me, Max Lucado, Thomas Nelson, 2004.
• “God is Love” - https://treasuringchristph.org/sermons/how-great-is-our-god/god-is-love/
