Why We Love God

Why We Love God

I John 4:19

Love may be defined as “an unselfish commitment to the temporal and eternal good of another.” A husband and wife love each other by being unselfishly committed to each other’s temporal and eternal good. Parents love their children by being unselfishly committed to their temporal and eternal good. Love is “an unselfish commitment to the promotion or advancement of another.”

I. We love God.

A. These words were written by a Christian to other Christians, and they mean, “We as Christians love God.”

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose (Rom. 8:28).

But if any man love God, the same is known of him (I Cor. 8:3).

B. The word love is in the present or continuous tense, so it brings out the fact that “We as Christians habitually love God.”

C. We as Christians habitually love God even though we have never seen, heard, or touched Him.

Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: (I Pet. 1:8).

If a man say, 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? (I Jn. 4:20).

D. We as Christians habitually love God with the divine love He has freely given us.

And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us (Rom. 5:5).

Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust (II Pet. 1:4).

E. We as Christians habitually love God because we are permanently indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, (Gal. 5:22).

F. We as Christians habitually love God because He has forgiven us of all our sins.

Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little (Lk. 7:47).

II. We love God because God first loved us.

A. This same truth is taught in the following verses:

The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee (Jer. 31:3).

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (Jn. 3:16).

For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life (Rom. 5:6-10).

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)(Eph. 2:4-5).

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. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another (I Jn. 4:9-11).

B. God set His sovereign, distinguishing, unconditional love upon us in eternity past when He established the covenant of grace or redemption with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began (II Tim. 1:9).

C. God loved us before our creation, regeneration, and conversion.

D. God loved us before we had any desire to love Him or to be loved by Him.

E. God loved us when we hated Him.

F. God loved us in spite of the fact that we were unlovely and unlovable.

All Christians love God. All Christians love God because God first loved them. God does not love Christians because they first loved Him.