Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Adult Sunday School Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/bb/bb20051218.htm

RELISHING THE ESSENCE AND ATTRIBUTES OF GOD
Part II: The Attributes Of God
G. Treasuring The Love Of God
(1 John 4:8b-10 with Matthew 22:27-38 and 1 John 3:17-18)
  1. Introduction
    1. The world's capacity for "love" differs from God's "love"; the former is a "desire for" an entity that has selfish ends in mind where God's "love" selflessly looks to benefit the entity itself that He loves.
    2. This moral attribute of God's love is described for us in 1 John 4:8b-10, and it is applied to our relationships with one another in Matthew 22:27-28 and 1 John 3:17-18 with immense edifying force:
  2. Treasuring The Love Of God, 1 John 4:8b-10 with Matthew 22:27-28 and 1 John 3:17-18.
    1. 1 John 4:8b reveals "God is love," that at the very core of God's being is a love for His creatures.
    2. This love was manifested to the human race as God expressed it as described briefly in 1 John 4:9-10 and other clarifying passages in the New Testament (as follows):
      1. God revealed His love to mankind in sending His only Son into the world in great humility, 1 Jn. 4:9a:
        1. When God's only Son was sent by the Father into the world, there was no room for the mother of His earthly humanity to stay even in a crude open cubicle for travelers outside Bethlehem, Luke 2:7 with Alfred Edersheim, Sketches of Jewish Social Life In The Days Of Christ, 1974, p. 49. Thus,
        2. God's only Son had to be wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a feeding trough for animals!
        3. When God's only Son came unto us, God assigned Him to live most of His earthly life in a despised part of Israel, in Galilee so not to make Himself of a worldly reputation, Jn. 1:45-46 & Phil. 2:5-8a.
      2. God revealed His love to the human race in sending His only Son into the world that the world might live through Him though it did not love Him, and did not thus deserve to live by Him, 1 John 4:9b-10a:
        1. John revealed that God's love for us was not exhibited in response for our initiating any love for Him; rather, God expressed His love for us in the gift of His only Son unto us while we did not love Him due to our sin against Him, 1 John 4:10a with 4:9b in light of Romans 5:8-9.
        2. That gracious divine love was expressed to save us from hell where we deserved to be sent by Him eternally to be tormented for our sin against God, cf. 1 John 4:9c with John 3:16 and Rev. 20:15, 10.
      3. God revealed His love to the human race in sending His only Son into the world graciously to provide salvation for mankind that was at enmity against God by graciously having Him bear the full brunt of God's wrath against mankind's sin and enmity against Himself, 1 John 4:10b:
        1. The word, "propitiation" in 1 John 4:10b is a theological term ( the Greek word, hilasmos) that refers to the satiation of the expressed wrath of God against man's sin, cf. U. B. S. Greek N. T., 1966 ed., p. 821; Leon Morris, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, 1972, p. 125-160.
        2. Christ is thus the "propitiation" for our sins: He as God's only Son sent into the world felt the full brunt of God's wrath leveled upon Jesus that was aimed against our sin on Christ when He hung on the cross so that God might graciously forgive and save us to Himself, 1 John 2:2; 2 Cor. 5:19-21.
        3. When one then believes in Christ as his Savior from sin, he is made a new creation that God might fellowship with him out of His infinite love for that human being, John 3:16 with 2 Cor. 5:17.
    3. Thus, we who trust in God's Beloved and only Son are called of God to love God back, Mtt. 22:37-38.
    4. Additionally, we believers are also called of God to love one another by sharing of our material goods with other believers EVEN IF they are NOT DESERVING just as WE were NOT DESERVING of GOD'S infinite love toward US in Christ , 1 John 3:17-18! [We are to balance this truth by not giving materially to those we know are intentionally idle, 2 Thess. 3:10; Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 723.]
Lesson: God's INFINITE LOVE for US who were at ENMITY with Him was shown by His sending His ONLY Son in SELFLESS HUMILITY to bear the COST of our SIN that DOOMED us to eternal hell that we (by faith in Christ) might have eternal life. That obligates us to love God BACK and to love fellow brethren JUST AS HUMBLY and GRACIOUSLY as GOD loves and cares for US!

Application: May we SELFLESSLY, HUMBLY love GOD and EACH OTHER in great KINDNESS, being willing to do what is needed for each other even if some brethren are undeserving, Phil. 2:5, 8!