“Jesus Love Me” is a song that many sang as a child, but somehow when we became adults, it seems difficult to believe that God truly loves us now. When you start telling people about the love of God, it almost turns them off, they don’t believe it. They think, “How could He love me, knowing what He knows about me?” So, they start striving for holiness, righteousness, and perfection as if they can achieve these by their performance. They start trying to “be better” by doing good deeds. They do this because in their minds they think that the love of God is meted out based on their performance.
This type of thinking is easy for all of us to slip into because this is how it is in this world. We are accepted if you do good things and we are rejected if we do bad things. We think God is like us. If I can be good enough and do more good things than bad, then maybe God will love me. This thinking is so wrong. God does not love us because we are good but because He is good. He loved us and demonstrated that love by dying on the cross for us while we were still sinners. I want to tell you that at the peak of your success, after you have overcome all your foes, dealt with all your weaknesses, conquered all your perversions, and have put all these things under your feet, God will love you no more then than He did when you were a sinner. This is the love of God, a love that surpasses human understanding. God’s love for us is a perfect love, an unconditional love. His love cannot be improved upon, its already complete.
Teaching on the love of God to the church is very difficult. Why? Because we think that we already understand the love of God, but our experience proves otherwise. We feel depressed, discouraged, and worthless. Every one of these negative feelings would be removed by a proper revelation of God’s love for us. We simply don’t understand the love of God, for example we read a verse like: For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome (1 John 5:3) NKJV.
We think, well I really want God to love me, so I need to keep His commandments. We are trying to get God to love us be keeping commandments. You can keep His commandments, live holy, and yet, not love God. The Pharisees kept His commandments, but knew nothing of the love of God. But I know you, that you do not have the love of God in you (John 5:42). You can obey what you don’t love.
Religion says, “God loves you, but He’s also mad at you when you sin.” Most churches teach (either directly or indirectly) that God’s love for us is conditional, based on our performance. If we don’t miss church, read our Bibles every day, pray, etc., then the Lord loves us and will answer our prayers; but if we fail, then the Lord won’t answer our prayers. That’s not true. I honestly think that the church and some preachers are afraid of a deep revelation of God’s love. If God is not mad at me and if He will never love me more than he does right now, then why can’t I party my way through life? The underlying fear is that a revelation of God’s unconditional love for us will lead to worldliness. I grew up in church hearing that the reason for “worldliness” in the church is our lack of love for God. They would quote, or should I say misquote (1 John 2:15).
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him (1 John 2:15). Notice the verse says the love OF the Father, not the love FOR the Father. This is the reason we yield to temptation, we lack the revelation of the Father’s love for us.
Do you feel that you love God enough? Do you feel that you ought to love Him more than you do? If so, why don’t you? The answer is simple, you can’t! It isn’t possible to love Him more until we first know how much He loves us. We love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). This verse tells me that we were incapable of loving Him before we received His love for us. Our love for God is not something that we can simply initiate, our love for Him grows as a response to our revelation of His love for us. This is the “because” of why we love Him. It is when we stop trying to love God by our efforts and simply focus on how much He loves us that we grow in our love for Him.
Some say that the definition of love is found in (1 Corinthians 13:4), “Love is patient, love is kind.” No, those are the characteristics of love. There is a definition of love found in 1 John 4:10 – In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Notice John said, “this is love, not that we loved God.” John received a revelation that we desperately need. In (John 19:26), John refers to himself as “the disciple whom He loved”. John finally got the revelation of God’s love for Him. Where did he get it? Looking at the cross. John in the closing chapters of the book of John referred to himself five times as the disciple whom Jesus loved. He knew it was not about his love for Jesus, but Jesus’ love for him. It was a complete shift in his identity and how he saw himself. We need to go back to the truth in a child’s song, “Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so”.
A message we need to hear and believe. John 17:23nlt is one of my favorites, “…that you (Father) love them (us) as much as you love me.”
Amen Pastor Dell,
Just wanted to say, I’m glad your doing better, keeping you in my prayers as always. God bless you.
I know too many Christians that are still trying to earn His love and forgiveness. To know that the love of the Father for us is really the key to walking in grace. Thank you for putting your understanding of this concept into terms that are easier to understand.