Gods Love Towards Us

1 John 4:8 and 16 tell us that “God is love.” Never was a more important declaration made than this—God is love. This is a profound statement. God doesn’t just love; He is love. His nature and essence are love. Love permeates His very being.

1. His love is a self-sacrificing love(agape) unconditional:

He gave His son:

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.

God the father loved us so much that He gave His first and His best to us! He gave us all He had.

Since it is God’s essential nature to love, He demonstrates His love by lavishing it on undeserving people who are in rebellion against Him. God’s love is not a sappy, sentimental, romantic feeling. Rather, it is agape love, the love of self-sacrifice. He demonstrates this sacrificial love by sending His Son to the cross to pay the penalty for our sin (1 John 4:10), by drawing us to Himself (John 6:44), by forgiving us of our rebellion against Him, and by sending His Holy Spirit to dwell within us, thereby enabling us to love as He loves. He did this in spite of the fact that we did not deserve it.

Agape is the term that defines God’s immeasurable, incomparable love for humankind. It is his ongoing, outgoing, self-sacrificing concern for lost and fallen people.

God gives this love without condition, unreservedly to those who are undeserving and inferior to himself.

“Agape love,” says Anders Nygren, “Is unmotivated in the sense that it is not contingent on any value or worth in the object of love. It is spontaneous and reckless, for it does not determine beforehand whether love will be effective or appropriate in any particular case.”

God just loves! He is reckless with His love. He doesn’t care if you may or may not love Him back. He doesn’t sit back and wonder “if I pour myself and all my love to this person, will they love me back”? He isn’t worried about his own comfort or pleasure. He just gives His love to all. His love never gives up.

2. He loved us while we were still sinners:

Romans 5:8 But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

This scripture here always blows my mind every time I read it. While we were still sinners? God’s love isn’t conditional. Its not based on performance. You can’t do anything to deserve His love or to win His love. He just loves you. Although we are so undeserving of His love, He still loves us.

When I think about this scripture, I think about the times that I was in sin and lived my life however I wanted. And I ask myself “you loved me even in that state that I was in”? WOW!

3. His love for you is personal:

Luke 12:7 And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So, don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows

Psalm 56:8 You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book

God knows you in a personal level. When God says He loves us, it’s not only lip service for Him, He truly means it.  And its personal to Him. That’s why He desires a relationship with you. Because His love for you is very personal. He is our creator and our father. He wants nothing but the best for His children. What good father wouldn’t want that?

Gods Love is patient and kind. Gods Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. His love does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.  It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.  Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.