WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW IS MORE GOD

1 John 4:16 ESV

So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW IS MORE GOD

1 John 4:16 (ESV) So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

1 John 4:16 (NLT) We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. 

I.      Introduction

In 1965, a song was written by Hal David and Burt Bacharach. The title of is, “What The World Needs Now Is Love”. The song has been recorded by many well-known artists including Dionne Warwick and the late Luther Vandross. This song has been performed over the years by many artists because it speaks a truth that we so often overlook in our everyday dealings. Each time the song is sung, I believe it infiltrates a listener’s mind and touches their heart, making he or she think on a level that they may not frequently think on. The message of the song indirectly speaks of the condition of the world and what the writer believes is needed to make the world a better place. In many regards, it is a prayer by Mr. David. Listen to these familiar words:

What the world needs now is love sweet love, it’s the only thing that there’s much too little of. What the world needs now is love sweet love, no not just for some, but for everyone. Lord we don’t need another mountain, there are mountains and hillsides enough to climb. There are oceans and rivers enough to cross, enough to last till the end of time. Lord we don’t need another meadow, there are cornfields and wheat fields enough to grow. There are sunbeams and moonbeams enough to shine till the end of time. What the world needs now is love sweet love, no not just for some, but for everyone.

In the verses of this song, Hal David expressed the sufficiency of the majestic mountains and hillsides, the sufficiency of oceans and rivers, and the sufficiency of cornfields and wheat fields. As he reflects on all that is available in the world, he in his philosophy pondering, concluded that the world needed something more than mountains, water, and food stock. He recognized and implies that there is something higher and grander that is missing in this world. In the deeper meaning of the lyrics, we can see that Hal David’s inference is really not against the earth itself, but rather against we who inhabit the earth, more directly, mankind. In his perceptive view Mr. David concluded that the world needed was more love. However, he falls short in stating the real need of the world. Hal David says the world needs more love. I say to you today, what the world needed in 1965, what the world needs today, and what we need, is more GOD.

II. What the world needs now is love...

How can we even begin to speak of the world needing love unless we speak of the source of love itself, God. There is no love without God. [and] Being made in the image and likeness of God, we have been endowed with the capacity to love. [but] Because of the world’s continued rejection of God and man’s inherent sin nature, the expression of love has become warped, debased, and distorted. Love is no longer the expression of unselfishness and shared without conditions. Love is now expressed by the fulfilling of our lustful desires and fleshly cravings. Even brotherly love is so distorted that when it is expressed it is often expected that some form of give back on the part of the receiver will be forthcoming to the giver. [However] Love is what God is as well as what He does. His love is eternal, immutable, and perfect.(1)  God’s love is extended toward the world/mankind in two ways: impersonal love and personal love.

Impersonal love emphasizes the perfect and absolute qualities of God, rather than the failings of man and is  unconditional2 and it is directed at all unbelievers. (1 John 4:9–10: In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Romans 5:8- but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.)

Personal love is conditional reserved only for those who, through faith alone in Christ alone, become members of his family and the righteousness of Christ is imputed (credited) to the believer.  It is because of Christ’s imputed righteousness God continuously blesses us through grace.3  [and] It is this personal love that John speaks of in verse 11 when he said: “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. [and] This is the love that the world needs now and what is missing today, i.e., love for one another. John says in verse 1 John 4:8- Anyone who does not love does not know God... v.16 God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in [them.] So what the world needs now is more God.