We are told that God is love. But how does that fit into it being an attribute? This daily devotional looks at how God loves us and wants us to imitate Him.
Nuggets
- If we know God and try to imitate Him, we will imitate His love.
- God expects a response to love – but it may not necessarily be what we think.
To read devotions in the Redo for Godliness series, click the appropriate button below.
Devotions in the Finding Our Center series
I have to have a big disclaimer for this devotion. I am struggling with a migraine today, and the number of sermons is overwhelming me.
We’ll see how far I get. Hopefully, it will be coherent.
If I have a lot left over, I’ll throw it in the overflow folder. I have been putting other things from this series and the Silence of the Soul series in there that we said we were going to dig into more deeply.
Let's Put It into Context #1
Here is a running list of what we’ve discussed previously.
Let's Put It into Context #2
Love is an intense feeling of deep affection.
Love Comes from God through Us
“The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love” (I Jn. 4: 8 CSB)
If we know God and try to imitate Him, we will imitate His love.
Morgan stated that love does originate with God. However, Candlish contended that God did not create love as it is not a created thing. Instead, he called it God’s property and an offshoot of His love.
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Either way, we can take the verse to the bank. God is love. Period. End of discussion.
Reading through all of these sermons, it boils down to No Love = No God; Love = Know God. But two disclaimers keep running through my mind.
- We are not talking worldview definition of love. We are talking pure, sinless love.
- Knowing God doesn’t mean we have ABCDed. Knowing is the first step to admitting, believing, confessing, and demonstrating. But knowing isn’t the end-all/be-all.
I bet it gets worldview people up in arms when we consider verse 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” (I Jn. 4: 7 CSB).
The last part is the kicker. It is the “… everyone who loves has been born of God …” (I Jn. 4: 7 CSB) deal.
Worldview people would argue that they love even though they have nothing to do with God. I think we can explain it.
We said in How Else Are We Made in His Image? that mankind are creatures who feel, especially love. We can because we are made in God’s image. I think the “… and knows God” (I Jn. 4: 7 CSB) part means we know Him because we are like Him, even those who have never heard of His love.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
I do think there are two levels of meaning at work here. What we were just discussing is for non-believers. The other level addresses disciples.
The way I read all this is that, in order to live correctly, we need to know God and become disciples. We are all made in His image and have the capacity to love in us. But we have to love in His pure way, not the worldview’s tolerant way.
Jenkins stressed that love is an important aspect of sonship and daughtership. Love is the mirror that reflects God in us.
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We said that God does keep secrets from us. His love is not one of them.
Candlish addressed the elements that make up the attribute of love. He wrote that, because we know God, we know “how it is the manner of God to love; what sort of love His is; love going out of self; love sacrificing self; love imparting and communicating self; love unsought and unbought; unconditional and unreserved; what kind of being, in respect of love, God is …”
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What all of that told me is we are to open ourselves up to others. We need to let them in, and they need to see the real us. If we do that, they see the God we are imitating.
Butler wrote, “It [knowing God] speaks of a state of mind rather than of a degree of attainment.” Morgan said it was a part of regeneration.
- Regeneration is being changed from spiritually dead to spiritually alive and the internal requickening in us that God brings about through the work of the Holy Spirit to give us new character.
- Spiritual death is the separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin. The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
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Glossary
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Morgan made another interesting comment. He felt that love was the foundations of all the other attributes being perfections. If God didn’t love, wisdom, power, and truth wouldn’t be perfect.
Beecher solidified our understanding of love as a attribute.
- The law is the measuring stick of character.
- Jesus said that the law could be summed up by the greatest commandments.
- The focus of the greatest commandments is love.
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What I would add to that is that the law shows us God’s character. To me, the attributes are the elements that make up our character.
If loving God and loving others leads to perfection, we have to embrace God’s love upon conversion and keep it at the forefront of our redo for godliness.
The Output of Love
“And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him” (I Jn. 4: 16 CSB)
God expects a response to love – but it may not necessarily be what we think.
The title of Bushnell’s sermon caught my eye. It is Loving God Is but Letting God Love Us.
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I don’t want us to slip into the entitlement mentality. Nothing we did made us earn God’s love. God loves believers and non-believers.
But just because God loves us doesn’t mean we can sit back and let Him. We have to have faith that He is Sovereign God. Faith is the conviction that the doctrines revealed in God’s Word are true, even if we do not understand all aspects of them, a belief which impacts our lives.
The only thing we do is to accept the gift of salvation.
- Salvation is the gift of life through the deliverance from evil and the consequences of sins to replace them with good and eternal life.
- The consequences of sin are spiritual death and physical separation from God.
- Eternal life is the promise of living eternally – even if we have died in this life – because we have admitted our sins, believed Jesus as Savior and Redeemer, and confessed God as Sovereign Lord.
Glossary
God expects us to seek Him and imitate Him. He wants us to build His character within us.
Aitken brought up a good point. Jesus isn’t looking at quantity. He is looking at quality. He is also looking at motivation.
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The great thing is God is unchangeable. He loves us forever, regardless of what we do or don’t do.
Voysey brought up a good point. We look at God and His moral attributes through a worldly lens. That viewing of these attributes is through our limited.
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We can’t try to bring God down to our level. He calls us to come up to His.
Making the Connections
This devotion is #23 in the series. We got 5 or 6 more to look at (yeah, unless I have to break them up).
Love is the foundation. Mant wrote, “He does not say that God is benevolent, or kind, or merciful, or compassionate, or affectionate: he does not say that God is a Being of infinite goodness, or mercy, or loving kindness: but, as if he intended to magnify above measure this most adorable of the Divine attributes, he pronounces Him to be the quality in the abstract, and thus, as it were, identifies the Godhead with love.” Vaughan called it His essence.
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How Do We Apply This?
Beecher made a strong statement, he said that we cannot be a Christian if we do not love God’s way.
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Butler put that into a practical application. He wrote, “To know God in any true sense is to be unselfish, to be loving, to have towards others the heart of a brother.”
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Carpenter suggested that, because we love, we pursue the highest good of greatness, purity, and goodness of character. He noted the highest good is a spiritual quest.
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I like the idea of love being the foundation. It gives the other attributes a good purpose.
In the next few devotions’ we will examine the attributes that tie into love.
Father God. We are humbled by the love You have for us. We want to take that love and grow closer to You. Help us to live the greatest commandments. Amen.
What do you think?
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