God is Love

Why you must love one another

I want to look at three reasons why loving other people… especially people who are difficult to love is so important.

We must begin with what is love? I have often heard about the four types of love in greek

Eros - Passionate love between a man and a women

Phileo - Love between friends

Storge - Affectionate love. Especially the love of parents for their children

Agape - God’s love often defined as unconditional.

I read an article online by Noah Nevils and he argues that God’s love isn’t unconditional

So if Agape is not unconditional love, what kind of love is it? To answer that, we need to look at a Hebrew word for love: Hesed, as it’s transliterated into English. This is God’s steadfast, covenantal care for his people. Dr. Del Tackett has defined it well as a “steadfast, sacrificial zeal for the true good of another.”

This, I think, is also an apt definition of Agape. It is the deepest, purest kind of love, unconcerned for self. The main difference between Hesed and Agape is that Hesed seems to be one-way, God-to-human, whereas Agape can go both ways between man and God, and person to person. And it’s such a powerful love that it’s easily, though mistakenly, described as unconditional.

The first reason why loving others is so important is God commands you too. Look at verse 7

1 John 4:7 ESV

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

Why is that so important? Why is it so important to keep the commands of God?

John 14:15–17 ESV

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

I will never get over how profound this truth is. I can not grasp it.

Let’s break this down. Verse 1 Jesus tells us how to know if we really love him. How will you know if you truly love Him? Hint it is in verse 15.

John 14:15 ESV

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

You will know that you truly love Jesus because you obey His commands. But Jesus doesn’t stop there. He doesn’t command you to obey and then leave you on your own to accomplish this on your own does He?

Jesus knows how weak you are He knows how weak I am so not only does He command us to obey. What does He do in verse 16?

John 14:16 ESV

16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,

Wow ponder that a minute. Jesus gives us a commandment He instantly knows that we have no chance of keeping so what does He do?

He asks the Father for what we need before we even know what we need

How awesome is that?

I could help but think of one of my little children struggling to get the cap off a bottle of juice. I try to take it and help. What do they do ? They pull it back they don’t need my help absolutely not they are a big boy or girl they don’t need mommy’s or daddy’s help. What do I do, I smile and stand back and smile. I love my children and want nothing more that to help them but I wait patiently until they finally give in and let me help.

How many times are we like that with our heavenly Father He waits patiently wanting nothing more than to help but we refuse.

But here in John 14 we see Jesus meet our need before we even ask. How many times do we struggle try to handle things on our own while Jesus is just watching waiting for us to ask?

The second reason that loving others is so important. It should be your response to how much God has loved you. Look at verses 10 and 11

1 John 4:10–11 ESV

10 In 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. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

DEFINITION Propitiation means “averting the wrath of God by the offering of a gift.” It refers to the turning away of the wrath of God as the just judgment of our sin by God’s own provision of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.

Story of Jonah

Romans 2:5 ESV

5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

The third reason loving others is so important it is a sign of your salvation.