The Greatest Evidence

The Origin of Love - I John 4:7-8

In verse 7 & 8 John tells us where love comes from. The origin of love is God. He states, “For love is of God.” There is no denying that love is a part of every human being. We are made in the image of God and because love is an intricate part of God’s nature that was passed unto us when he made us in his image. This explains why those that are not saved has the capacity to love their family and friends. The unconditional love of God, however, is a level of love to which those that have yet to trust in the Lord can possess or show to others. Unconditional love for complete strangers, love for people that hurt or endangers us, and love that is shown without regard for whether love will be given in return is the kind of love that is derived from becoming a child of God. One that does not have God inside of him is one that cannot love like God loves. They have the capacity to love as one made in the image of God, but they do not have the ability to love as God loves.

These verses also gives us a window into the life of a person that is born of God and has God dwelling inside of him. In verse eight we are also told that one that does not love is one that does not know God for one that is born of God would have love inside of him to give and show to others.

This means that if we know God then we will have access to the kind of unconditional love that God possesses and shows to us.

The Manifestation of Love - I John 4:9-10

God Sacrificed His Son - I John 4:9

God shows us that love is as much an action as it is an emotion and maybe more so. God did not just love us in a nurturing way as his own creation. When man sinned against Him and they were guilty before Him he could have condemned them and sent them to Hell. However, God put his love for us into action by instituting a plan that he had initiated before the foundations of the world ever were spoken into being. He called upon a people that would make known his law, show his power and prominence to all men, and that would be the lineage that would bring his Son into the world to save all men from their sins.

God knew that his Son would be rebuked, reviled, and rejected. He knew that his Son would be treated poorly and that the people he sent His son to save would ultimately destroy his physical body in the worst avenue of destruction humanity would ever invent, the crucifixion upon a cross. God understoood that when he initiated into action the plan developed before the founations of the world his son would be slaughtered for sins of every person. Yet, in his love for us, he chose to do it anyway for love is an action that requires sacrifice from the person offering it. When someone chooses to forgive and sacrifice as God did in giving us his son they manifest the love that only God could give.

This is the love only God can give or show. This is the love that we can only activate if God lives within us. This is the love that lives inside of our actions and is given even to those that we do not know and that do not retaliate with love.

The love of God then is manifested through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary for our sins.

God Sufficed the Law - I John 4:10

We have seen God manifested his love for us when he sacrificed his son, but also when he gave his son to suffice the requirements of the law. The Holman NT Commentary helps us understand the word Propitiation. It says, “Propitiation speaks of appeasing or averting God’s wrath.” This tells us that when Christ died on the cross he sufficed the requirement of the law for someone to die for sin. While the penalty of sin remains upon a person until they accept Christ, once they apply the blood of Jesus to their sin by trusting in his sacrificial death upon the cross and his miraculous resurrection then the penalty of the law is sufficed and the guilt of that person is removed allowing them entrance into the family of God and, as a result, entrance into heaven to be present with God for all eternity.

So the love of God is manifested to us in that God sacrificed his son for us so that the law of God could be sufficed in Jesus Christ and our entrance into the family of God could be made possible and our entrance into heaven could be secured.

The Functions of Love -

The Functions of Love -

How does the love of God function within the Christian? What is the purpose for the love of God in the life of a Christian? These are the questions that are brilliantly answered in very few words by the Apostle John. He states, “No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.” He makes a point to tell us that no person has seen God the Father in physical form, but he emphasizes that when we show our love to others that God indwells us.

Evidence of God’s Indwelling

Herschel Hobbs summed this up well, “It (that being love) is the visible evidence that God dwells in us.” God, who they cannot see in physical form, is seen through the love that we show to others. This love comes from God and is shown by those who are born of God. Thus, when we express the love of God like we should we are showing the world our wonderful, amazing, God. Hobbs continues skillfully, “The thought is that Christians, by the practice of loving deeds, become the means by which the invisible God is seen.”

Evidence of God’s Working

Hobbs introduces a second thought regarding the function of love in our lives, “When we practice God’s love ‘is perfected in us’. This means that our love is the ripened fruit of his love.” When we show love to others we reveal God’s working in our lives. We can offer no more evidence of God’s existence than to show the love that he placed inside of each of our hearts.

Conclusion

In our

From our text we learn that the origin of love is God, that God manifested his love to us through the sacrifice of his Son, and that the function of God’s love in our lives is to show all people that He exists and that he loves them. When we show love we offer people around us the evidence that God exist and that he loves them. When they see the evidence of God’s existence and God’s love it will give them an opportunity to embrace him and the sacrifice that he made by sending his son to die for our sins and suffice the requirement of the law to absolve them of guilt and give them the gift of eternal life.

If we want to win the world to the Lord Jesus Christ then we must allow the love of God to be perfected in us. To do this we must show love and showing love is the greatest evidence we can present to the world of the truth of God’s love for them.