The Subject of Love, the God Kind of Love

So today is Valentine’s Day ! It’s a day when we give gifts to the love of our life. If you’re married that’s your spouse but I remember making Valentines cards for others as far back as grade school. We used to give like those little heart candies to classmates. It was kind of cheesy but we did it. We would also make Valentines projects for our parents.

Later on we bought flowers and candies for our sweethearts. Usually there was also a Valentines dinner in the plans. But today I want to focus on our first love and that is God. We are going to see that God is really the one who loves us unconditionally. I want us to see that we need to love the way God loves. Are you ready to see just how great our First Love is? Great so let’s start with what is probably the most familiar verse of scripture. Get your Bibles and turn with me to the Gospel of John. I think you know where we’re heading

John 3:13–18 The Message

13 “No one has ever gone up into the presence of God except the One who came down from that Presence, the Son of Man. 14 In the same way that Moses lifted the serpent in the desert so people could have something to see and then believe, it is necessary for the Son of Man to be lifted up—15 and everyone who looks up to him, trusting and expectant, will gain a real life, eternal life. 16 “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. 17 God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. 18 Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.

1. God loves us so much He gave His best!

Look at how much God loves. He was willing to give His only Son as a sacrifice for us so no one would have to be destroyed. Now let me ask you a question. Do you think you would be able to make it to heaven on your own? I don’t know about you but I have done enough on my own to secure the fact that I would never make it to heaven on my own. In fact, I would be heading the opposite way on my own and be separated for eternity from God. So I am super thankful that Jesus came and gave His life for me so I would not be destroyed. How about you?

John 15:9–17 The Message

9 “I’ve loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you’ll remain intimately at home in my love. That’s what I’ve done—kept my Father’s commands and made myself at home in his love. 11 “I’ve told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature. 12 This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. 13 This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends. 14 You are my friends when you do the things I command you. 15 I’m no longer calling you servants because servants don’t understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I’ve named you friends because I’ve let you in on everything I’ve heard from the Father. 16 “You didn’t choose me, remember; I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won’t spoil. As fruit bearers, whatever you ask the Father in relation to me, he gives you. 17 “But remember the root command: Love one another.

2. Jesus loved us so much He put His life on the line for us!

So here we see that Jesus loved us the same way His Father loved Him. So now you and I have an example on how to love. Jesus loved us by laying down His life for us and that what He expects us to do, put our lives on the line for others. Here’s another thought that I have. Did you notice that sometimes it’s hard to put your life on the line for those that are closest to you. Like you spouse, your parents, your siblings. Why is that? We actually should be able to lay our lives down to those that are close to us. Sometimes I have to remind myself to never take advantage of our loved ones and when we really don’t love them by laying our lives down for them, we are taking advantage of them. We don’t really think what life will be like without them. So let’s love like Jesus did.

1 John 4:15–21 ESV

15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 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. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

3. Now it’s our turn to love like God loves!

We have the love of God in us if we truly believe and follow Jesus. When that is fact in our lives, we aren’t afraid of anything because that love casts out fear. That could even be the fear of getting taken advantage of or even being hurt in the process. When we are emotionally scared, there is a fear that comes on us because we never want to go through anything that traumatic again. But when we love the way God loves, that fear is gone.

We love God because He loved us first. If we indeed love God then we would love others because that is the way God loves and we need to love like God does.

Revelation 2:1–5 The Message

1 Write this to Ephesus, to the Angel of the church. The One with Seven Stars in his right-fist grip, striding through the golden seven-lights’ circle, speaks: 2 “I see what you’ve done, your hard, hard work, your refusal to quit. I know you can’t stomach evil, that you weed out apostolic pretenders. 3 I know your persistence, your courage in my cause, that you never wear out. 4 “But you walked away from your first love—why? What’s going on with you, anyway? 5 Do you have any idea how far you’ve fallen? A Lucifer fall! “Turn back! Recover your dear early love. No time to waste, for I’m well on my way to removing your light from the golden circle.

4. We must guard our relationship with our “First Love”!

There is a warning here in Revelation. This letter was written to a church that had some great things happening. They worked hard, they refused to quit, they couldn’t stand evil and they weeded out the false prophets. They were persistent and had courage and they never ever wore out. But, and it’s a big one, they walked away from their first love. Yes they did all the right things, and that’s the key, they did! What they didn’t do was spend time with their First Love.

Our lives really have no future or hope without God and His plan of redemption through Jesus, which was made possible by His love for us. God loved so He gave without hesitation. He didn’t promise and not do. Jesus gave His life because of love. And when we first realize the gift, we are so in love with God because He loved us and showed us just how much He did.

What happens sometime is life as we know it in this world. We can get so “caught up” in the things that God has basically equipped and called us to do that we forget it’s God who got us the job, or the ministry, or the family, or the things and we walk away from our first love. No matter what happened while Jesus was here on earth, He never abandoned His Father, His first love. We have that example in Him. Are we too busy? Do we think that what we do cannot survive without us? It can and someday it will. But our relationship with God will never end. So we need to love our First Love the way Jesus did. Nothing else really has any meaning if we neglect the One who gives meaning to life