The Gift of Love
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This afternoon I want us to continue thinking about love. I want to challenge us to think differently about how we actually love God.
We must love God the in the same manner in which He loved us.
10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
The way the Father loved us was by sending His Son to be our propitiation- our wrath bearer. But it was the act of sending the Son that was the demonstration of what love actually looked like. Love was God sending, or we could say it this way, love was God gifting to us His Son.
In fact elsewhere in Scripture, the Bible calls it exactly that.
16 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.
The manner in which God loved us was by giving as a gift to us his only begotten Son. So God’s love is expressed in the giving of a gift. Do you follow?
Jesus also expressed His love to the Father through the giving of a gift.
30 Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.
31 But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.
Jesus is about to go to the cross- He says, “I will not talk, much with you from here on out.” Why not? “Because the prince of this world is coming.” Satan is coming, the cross is approaching. But Jesus says, “He has nothing in me.” The idea is that Satan has no claim on Jesus- Satan cannot make Jesus go to the cross- Jesus is God- Satan can’t make Him do anything.
Rather- V. 31, Jesus says, “But / instead of being forced by Satan, instead I do as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do- why? So that the world may know that I love the Father.”
In other words Jesus is saying, I am going to do what the Father commanded, going to the cross, so that the world may know that I love Him.
I think we could say it this way, when Jesus went to the cross He was purchasing something for His Father in order to demonstrate to the whole world that the Son loves the Father.
What did Jesus purchase? The answer is us- guilty, condemned sinners deserving nothing but God’s wrath- Jesus purchased us back for the Father by means of His own blood. And He did so not simply for you. Did you realize that? Your salvation is not primarily about you. That fact that we become saved, and justified from our sin is secondary. It is incredible, but it is secondary. The primary reason that Jesus went to the cross and shed his blood for our sins, and because our wrath bearer was so that He could purchase us, and give us as a gift to the Father- and it was in this act of obedience that the world would know that the Son loves the Father.
So love is expressed by the Father by means of a gift. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.
And love is expressed by the Son by means of purchasing guilty sinners by means of his own blood for the sake of giving us as a gift to the Father.
So believer how do you express your love for God?
15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.
2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
6 And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it.
4 Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
5 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.
Do you get the picture for how you as a believer are to express your love to God? Keeping God’s commandment, doing good works- this is an expression of your love for God.
But, keeping commandments in and of themselves, in other word wrote obedience, is not nor can it ever be an expression of love.
When I tell my kids to go clean their room- and the sigh, and they role their eyes, and they stomp to their bed room- and yes the room gets cleaned in the process- is that an expression of love? Even if they don’t cop and attitude, if they just clean their room by nothing other than wrote obedience- in other words they clean their room because they have no choice in the matter so they might as well get it over with- is that an expression of love?
So how can we think differently about obeying God’s commandments so that we don’t do it with an attitude, or we don’t do it simply because of wrote obedience, but rather we actually do it as an expression of love? Answer we follow God’s pattern of love.
In other words we think about our obedience as a chance to give God a gift.
14 Notwithstanding ye have well done, that ye did communicate with my affliction.
15 Now ye Philippians know also, that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only.
16 For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity.
17 Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account.
18 But I have all, and abound: I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God.
Here you have a group of believers, who love the Lord, and they want to obey the commands of the Lord. One of the way they obeyed God’s commandments was to supply Paul with money for his missionary journeys. And as the obeyed God, and they gave Paul money, and they did it willingly, and cheerfully, out of a love for God and the gospel and for Paul himself. Paul said that to God your obedience was as an offering unto God- it was an odour of a sweet smell, an acceptable sacrifice, it was well pleasing to God. Now as the money itself well pleasing to God? No. What was it? It was their obedience. They gave God the gift of their obedience by willingly and cheerfully obeying His commandments and God fully understood that as an expression of their love for Him, and it was well pleasing in His sight.
Folks, do we think about our obedience this way? Do we think about our expression of love to God this way? Do we love God by giving Him gifts? Just like God gave the gift of His Son to us, and Jesus gave us as a gift to the Father- we must give God, as an expression of our love, the gift of our obedience.
So I am no longer going to church simply because of wrote obedience, or I am not giving money in the offering plate grudgingly or sparingly, I am no longer doing as little as I possibly can for the Lord in my service in the church, I am not making excuses for why I cannot serve Him, I am not choosing to stay at home and watch football instead of bring involved in ministry, and so many other things. Every area of my obedience becomes transformed when I think of it as an opportunity to give God the gift of my love.
14 For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:
15 And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.
I now willingly no longer live for myself, but I live my life as an opportunity to give the gift of obedience as an expression of love to Him which died for me and rose again.
How well have you been doing with expressing your love to God? Have you been obeying His commandments because you want to give God the gift of your love? Or have you been obeying by wrote, or doing so grudgingly, maybe you are not obeying God’s commandments at all, maybe you have lost your first love, and you need to go back and do the first works.
How can you give God the gift of your obedience as an expression of your love this week? I challenge all of you this week, go home and examine your obedience to God, and ask yourself why am I doing this? Do I really view this as an opportunity to express my love?