God’s Love

Love: Doing what is best for another regardless of the effect on oneself.

2 Corinthians 5:14, “For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.”  Jesus’ love compels us to live as selflessly as He did.

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes is Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”  God came to earth to pay the debt to justice for all people, so that those who have Biblical faith can have eternal life.  If He had not removed the debt barrier, we would not been permitted into heaven.  God endured life on a broken planet plus persecution, injustice, and humiliation so that we could be freed from slavery to the fear of death and slavery to sin (having a debt we could not pay, so not having any escape from that slavery).

Romans 8:35, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?”  Jesus will continue to love us through all our difficulties.  Understanding that He cares makes hard times bearable.

Romans 8:37, “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”  We are enabled by the indwelling Spirit to overcome ourselves and conquer the brokenness of earth.  So, the indwelling Spirit is one of the ways that God loves us (does what is best for us), so that we do not need to be pushed along by the world, but rather conquer life on earth.

Ephesians 2:4 – 7, “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”  God loved us (did what was best for us) while we were still sinners, not waiting for us to straighten ourselves out before He would accept us.  Further, He has already seated the spirits of the faithful where Jesus is while they are still physically alive on earth.

1 John 4:7 – 11, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.  He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.  In this the love of God is manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.  In this 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 love us, we also ought to love one another.”  Our response to God’s love should be to love others.

1 John 3:16, “By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.”

John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”

John 14:21, “Whoever has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”  Loving Jesus includes doing what He asked.  This love relationship is not one of authority, but rather of doing what pleases the other.

Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

Ephesians 5:25, “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her.”

Revelation 1:5, “and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood.”