God's Love in Retrospect

It was mention, the crises of our lives are often crises of love. The failure of love in our relationships to other people can inflict wounds on our ability to love ourselves. Alternately, we discover that our love is so fiercely focused on ourselves that we are unable to relate to others.

What is Love? God is Love. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

God’s love is a transforming love, transforming our unattractiveness into loveliness. It is truly unconditional love ()

Schwöbel Christoph, “Introduction: The Preacher’s Art: Preaching Theologically,” in Theology through Preaching: Sermons for Brentwood (Edinburgh; New York: T&T Clark, 2001), 11.

One day a single friend asked a father of four, “Why do you love your kids?” The father thought for a minute, but the only answer he could come up with was “Because they’re mine.”

The children had no need to do anything to prove themselves to this father. He took them just as they were. So it is with God’s love for us. He loves us as we are, and it is his love that motivates us to trust and obey him in return.

In retrospect God said, (ESV)

1When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. 2The more they were called, the more they went away; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols...

2The more they were called, the more they went away; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols.

3Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk; I took them up by their arms, but they did not know that I healed them.

The Love of God is Described as Constraining in .

4led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them.

4I led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them.

Moses argument in Deuteronomy is to remember God.

The word remember (Put to mind) is a covenantal term. It is used of God when He is said to have remembered Rachel () and Hannah (). In each case it points to God acting on behalf of those remembered.[1]

[1]Southern Baptist Theological Seminary: Southern Baptist Journal of Theology Volume 8. Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2004; 2006, S. vnp.8.2.51

In the previous chapters Moses has reviewed the history of God’s role in Israel’s immediate history. Now he defines appropriate response.

Israel is to accept God’s Law as the foundation of her national life (4:1–8). She must never forget that it was God who gave the Law, or turn away from Him to idolatry (vv. 9–24). God’s Law not only defines a godly lifestyle: it serves as the basis for future judgment (vv. 25–31).

And for our Scriptural text,

God has chosen Israel and powerfully demonstrated His love (vv. 32–38). Thus God must be acknowledged and His decrees kept, that the future of Israel may be secured (vv. 39–40).

Key verse. 4:40: Law brings blessing to those who keep it. Personal application. Be clear about who God is.

Personal application. Be clear about who God is.

Jesus demonstrated Moses teaching on the Law ()

(ESV)

37And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

38This is the great and first commandment.

39And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

He confirmed that love in

(ESV)

9As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.

1 In the beginning the Word already existed.

10If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.

The Word was with God,

11These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

and the Word was God.

12“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

2 He existed in the beginning with God.

13Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

3 God created everything through him,

and nothing was created except through him.

4The Word gave life to everything that was created,

and his life brought light to everyone.[1]

14 So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.[2]

Jesus said, Do think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. ()

The practical application is summed up in the two great commandments:

1. 34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees with his reply, they met together to question him again. 35 One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”37 Jesus replied, “ ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’* 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’* 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”[3]

a) He confirmed that love in

9 “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. 10 When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. 11 I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! 12 This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. 13 There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. [4]

[1]Tyndale House Publishers: Holy Bible : New Living Translation. 2nd ed. Wheaton, Ill. : Tyndale House Publishers, 2004, S.

[2]Tyndale House Publishers: Holy Bible : New Living Translation. 2nd ed. Wheaton, Ill. : Tyndale House Publishers, 2004, S.

* .

[3]Tyndale House Publishers: Holy Bible : New Living Translation. 2nd ed. Wheaton, Ill. : Tyndale House Publishers, 2004, S.

[4]Tyndale House Publishers: Holy Bible : New Living Translation. 2nd ed. Wheaton, Ill. : Tyndale House Publishers, 2004, S.

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