God's Great Circle of Love June 9, 2024
TEXT: 1 John 4:10-11
We find John's lesson for this week in 1 John 4:10-11 where he wrote: " (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. (11) Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another."
John is the Disciple of Love and today's lesson shows us part of that reason. John saw himself as the recipient of Christ's love. He also refused to love the world or the things that were in the world and that's what prompted him to call for believers to love one another. Our text reveals both the reach and the rationale for love in the Christian life. He begins by telling us that God loved us first and because of that, we are to love one another. By doing so we complete the circle of love from God to us, from us to others, and from all of us, back to God.
John is showing us in verse 10 that love starts with God. In verse 8 of chapter 4 he told us that God is love because that is His nature -- that is the way that He is. The concept of love that is held by the world is one that is shallow and selfish which has weakened the understanding of love. In the eyes of those who don't know God, love is whatever makes you feel good, so Godless people feel they have the right to sacrifice moral principles and others' rights, wants, and needs in order to obtain this kind 'love." But this is actually the opposite of what real love is -- it is selfishness. To those who truly know God, His sacrificial love becomes evident in how we treat others.
Paul tells us in Romans 3:11 that there is none who seek God, but rather it is God that is the original seeker. God is the one who sought out Adam and Eve when they hid from His after they sinned by eating the forbidden fruit. So, when we look for Him, it's a response to His love for us. Paul also writes in Ephesians 1:4: "According as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be Holy and without blame before Him." Paul is emphasizing that God chose us to make the point that salvation depends totally on God. We aren't saved because we deserve it. It's because God graciously and freely gives us salvation. Our wisdom or good behavior doesn't influence God's decision to save us; it's because of His love and mercy that He saved us according to His plan. That's why we can't take credit for our salvation or take pride when we make the decision to come back to Him.
The mystery of salvation originated in the mind of our timeless God long before we existed. It's inconceivable that God would accept us. But Jesus, by His sacrifice, makes us holy and blameless in God's sight. If we are in Christ, God looks at us as blameless. If we are in Christ, God looks at us as if we have never sinned. All we can do is express our thanks for His wonderful love.
Peter reminds us in I Peter 1:18-20 that we are in fact redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus. Slaves were redeemed when someone paid money to buy their freedom. God redeems slaves to sin from its tyranny, not with money, but with the blood sacrifice of His own Son. We can't escape from sin on our own. Only the love of God and His Son can free us. Jesus' sacrifice for our sins was not an afterthought. God didn't decide to send Jesus after the world spun out of control. The plan was set in motion by the all-knowing, eternal God long before the world was created. What a comfort it must have been to early believers to know that the coming of Jesus and His work of salvation was planned by God long before the world began. This no doubt gave them assurance that the law wasn't being scrapped because it didn't work but that both the law and the coming of Jesus were always a part of God's eternal plan.
Isaiah shows us that God's plan didn't come about after the world was out of control. Isaiah tells us in chapters 53:5-6: " (5) But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. (6) All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Isaiah wrote this more than 700 years before the birth of Jesus. God allowed an Old Testament prophet to show us the Messiah dying for His people's sins; and bearing the punishment that we deserve will bring us back to God. The system of sacrifices instituted by God's instructions to Moses pointed to this. But killing a lamb is one thing; thinking of God's Son as the Lamb is quite different. God used Isaiah to pull aside the curtain of time to let us look ahead to see the suffering of the coming Messiah that would result in forgiveness being available to all who will accept Him. Why was it necessary for the Messiah to do this? It's because God is Holy, and we cannot enter His presence marked by sin. So, the perfect, sinless Lamb of God, Jesus Christ the Messiah, took our sin and experienced the death we deserve. He sacrificed Himself for us so we can now enter into God's Holy presence. Best of all, Jesus' sacrifice didn't end in death. He rose from the dead to show that He has the power over death giving us confidence that we, like Him, will have eternal life.
Let's look at the word "propitiation" in verse 10. By definition it means 'to make favorably inclined.' In the Bible, propitiation is the death of Christ on the Cross. Sin took us out of favor with God. But propitiation is the full payment that takes away our sins and allows God to look at us favorably. Jesus is the One that paid that price for us. Henry Allan Ironside, a Canadian-American Bible teacher, preacher, theologian, pastor, and author who pastored the Moody Church in Chicago from 1929 to 1940 said this about propitiation: "In those hours of darkness God was dealing with His Son about the awful question, and there He bore in His inmost soul the judgment that you and I would have to bear ourselves for all eternity if left without a savior. Thus, He became the propitiation." So, propitiation through Jesus was God plan to settle our sin problem.
John reminds us in verse 11 of our text that receiving God's love brings a responsibility to us. That responsibility requires that we love one another. That includes saints and sinners alike. He also tells us in chapter 3 verses 14-17 Jesus taught that those who hate others are committing murder in their hearts. Committing to follow Jesus brings a change deep in the heart. Good behavior and deeds alone fall short. Bitterness toward someone who has wronged us works like an evil cancer that will eventually destroy a person if it remains within us. When you let go of bitterness toward that person, your heart is lifted of the burden you were carrying. Real love leads to action, and it produces selfless, sacrificial giving. The greatest act of love is giving of yourself to help others without any thought of receiving anything in return. It means putting another's desires ahead of our own. This is the kind of love that goes beyond words and produces compassion for those in need. It is truly of a reflection of the love that God first showed to us as told in verse 10.
Romans 5:8 tells us how God loved us while we were sinners so we must also love one another. This love goes beyond words and requires us to love others in actions and in truth. It's the kind of love that produces compassion in the hearts of God-fearing people and compels us to share His love with others. We should never let a day go by without thanking God for the love that He has shown to us and finding a way to tell others so that they also can have His love. This is how we live in the circle of God's love.
Until we meet again, may God bless and keep you, may He shine His light on you, show you grace, and give you peace in all the days ahead.