A message for Akron Alliance Fellowship Church, Akron OH, Sunday, November 17, 2024.
For the “Live in Church” audio of this message, select here:
We’re going to spend some time today on the subject of God’s love and how He wants each of us to respond to it. It’s fitting that we must often refocus our efforts on God as the world will always do its part to diminish God and render Him as irrelevant in our lives. In conversations with a number of people, I’ve found that the noise of the world grabs the attention of those who have lost focus relationally with Jesus. We’re all human, and we often try to use our own reasoning to make sense of what’s going on around us. If it hasn’t already happened, we find that this reasoning leads to futility.
Ecclesiastes 1:1-2 NIV
1 The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:
2 “Meaningless! Meaningless!”
says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.”
From these words, you’d better believe that Solomon is not in charge of cheering us up! You won’t often find the use of the word “love” in Ecclesiastes, and even when you do see it, you’ll see that it has more to do with how we live. You’ll find it in Ecclesiastes 3:11 (a time to love, a time to hate), and you’ll see it in Ecclesiastes 9:9 with men being encouraged to love your wife:
Ecclesiastes 9:9-10 NLT
9 Live happily with the woman you love through all the meaningless days of life that God has given you under the sun. The wife God gives you is your reward for all your earthly toil. 10 Whatever you do, do well. For when you go to the grave, there will be no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom.
Even this passage is full of skepticism, and it mirrors the trials and difficulties of today’s world. I want you to see how the absence of God’s love, a very important part of your life, can lead to a truly meaningless life experience.
So let’s explore the importance of a relationship with God and dwell on what it means for us. We’ll cover three subjects of note today:
1.) God’s love is eternal and evident with the believer.
2.) God’s love is to be shared with others—whether they know God or not.
3.) God’s love comes with a high standard for believers that must be followed.
Part 1 – God’s Love and its Recognition by the Believer
First, let’s explore the love of God. Note that loving God, in the way we understand love, is not all about our feelings. It is an emotional relationship that requires a commitment to grow in His wisdom and knowledge. It requires a reliance on the Holy Spirit to help us to experience the love that God has for us. It challenges our faith in Him as we learn to love Him and grow with maturity in Christ. God is love because it is in His nature and character.
John helps us out with a basic premise of love and where it comes from:
1 John 4:7-10 NIV
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
So, this love of God, this agape love, a love not restricted by boundaries, is complete and readily given to us to share with others. 1 John 4:7 tells us to “love one another,” which means we are not to keep it to ourselves—we are to share it with others. Our sharing of God’s love is the essence of the proclamation of the Good News—the gospel of Jesus Christ:
1 John 4:11-16 CSB
11 Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and his love is made complete in us. 13 This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent his Son as the world’s Savior. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God—God remains in him and he in God. 16 And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.
Read these words very carefully. This is the gospel of Jesus. John is reiterating the essence of who God is. It is in His character. God is love, and the indwelling Spirit reveals this love to us.
Do you sense that God has to help us to grow in this love that God has for us? I certainly do!
1 John 5:3-4 NIV
3 In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.
John 16:33 NIV
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Jesus loves us in a way that makes it easy to love Him and remain in obedience to His Word.
He is the One who brings us peace in a troubled world.
Part 2 – God’s Love is to Be Shared with Others—Whether They Know Him or Not.
When we spend time in our studies about the love of God, we will often read the Spirit-filled words of John from his gospel and in his letters. He is not the only one who speaks about love, of course. I also want to address a passage that comes from Matthew Chapter 5 within the text of Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount as to how we are to share God’s love:
Matthew 5:43-48 NLT
43 “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. 44 But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! 45 In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. 46 If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. 47 If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. 48 But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.
Jesus is telling us here to do something that is radical and other-worldly in nature. This passage comes from the premise of one of the greatest commandments from Leviticus 19:18: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” He is flat-out telling us to love those that we do not readily like or even those who hate us. That’s why love, for this purpose, is not about our feelings. When we let our feelings get the better of us, it’s not a good thing. More often than not, it’s a lack of self-discipline. It’s interesting how self-discipline (self-control) is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit:
2 Timothy 1:7 NLT
For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.
This love is all about loving as Christ loves us. You know that we’re not all that likeable at times. Jesus loves us in spite of who we are. And isn’t that amazing?!
Part 3 – God’s Love Comes with a High Standard for Believers That Must Be Followed
God’s love for us requires us to acknowledge what He has done for us and live responsibly according to His Word. We need to show our appreciation for God’s goodness with respect and reverence.
We are not to be like the believers that Paul addressed in Romans Chapter 3 (verses 1-8) that tried to claim that it was OK to sin in order to elevate God’s holiness. It was an intellectual argument that was an affront to Paul, who essentially declared that these arrogant individuals were on the fast track to God’s condemnation. (Just because God loves us and extends grace and mercy, it does not give us the right to live any way that we want to live.) This view is what is referred to as Antinomianism, which acknowledges salvation by grace through Jesus Christ but rejects any relevance to follow the law of God. Antinomianism (Greek for ‘anti-law’) believes that faith alone guarantees one’s eternal security in heaven, regardless of one’s actions.1
But the Word is clear as to how being a believer in Jesus bears responsibility within the relationship:
2 Timothy 2:19 NLT
But God’s truth stands firm like a foundation stone with this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and “All who belong to the Lord must turn away from evil.”
Every believer must not just rely upon faith in Jesus but also must take ownership of this moral position. Jesus tells us to depart from evil.
God’s standard of holiness is very clear.
1 Peter 1:14-17 NLT
14 So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. 15 But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. 16 For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”
17 And remember that the heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent fear of him during your time here as “temporary residents.”
Philippians 2:12-13 NLT
12 Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. 13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.
In this passage, “work hard” or in some translations it reads “work out your salvation with fear and trembling” means to live as a servant of Jesus Christ with a life that honors and glorifies God. A challenge for all believers in Jesus is to ask the Spirit to elevate the name of Jesus as you humble yourself before Him.
James 4:10 NIV
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
The more that God reveals Himself to us through the Spirit, we will see how our interaction with Him raises our standard of living for Him.
In 1 John Chapter 5, John provides insight in the power of prayer in accordance with His will:
1 John 5:14-18 NIV
14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.
16 If you see any brother or sister commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray and God will give them life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that you should pray about that. 17 All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death.
18 We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them.
John makes it a point to tell us here that we need to pray with confidence that—in His love for us—He will hear our prayers. He tells us that, with reverence and humility, we are to pray for our brothers and sisters in sin. John does not specify the nature of these sins, but he does let us know, in verse 17, that there are different degrees of sin. There are sins before God that don’t lead to death, and sins before Him that lead to death. Most commenters believe that John is referring to physical death pertaining to one who professed to believe in Jesus. This may have had to do with persons who at one time professed faith in Jesus that left the Christian fellowship and joined the antichrists.2 John implies in this text that those who commit sin unto death may very well be so contrary to God that the prayers won’t be heard; nevertheless, we are to pray if the Spirit gives direction to do so.
What examples can we refer to in Scripture where God dealt with those who committed sin unto death? To name just a few:
Moses and Aaron, in Numbers 20:5-13, were told by God to speak to the rock at Meribah to bring forth water for the Israelite community, but Moses struck the rock twice with his staff. God saw this as rebellion against His command, and in His judgment declared that they both would not lead the people into the Promised Land. The Lord took Aaron to the top of Mount Hor where he died (Numbers 20:22-29), and later Moses died on Mount Nebo (Deuteronomy 34:5-8).3
Ananias and Sapphira were struck dead when they lied to God (Acts 5:1-11).
Paul wrote about the Christians in Corinth that had become ill or died because they took Communion in an unworthy (and blasphemous) manner (1 Corinthians 11:27-30).
There are other examples in Scripture, but this subject brings us back to the place where we need to be reminded that our sinful actions, if unchecked or corrected, can lead to physical consequences. We have the assurance, in spite of this, that every believer in Jesus Christ will receive eternal life, and no sin will take that salvation away, but God, in His sovereignty, will protect and honor His testimony and His glory.
We need to see that there is a high standard—His holiness—that all believers must acknowledge. God does not act in an arbitrary manner. Our choices can impact our lives for the good or to their detriment.
So, what are we to do? Live in such a manner where you are consciously giving God the glory. If you sin, ask for forgiveness and receive God’s restoration, but recognize that sin does have consequences. By the way, none of these words detract in any manner the love that God has for each and every one of us. He merely has a standard of holiness that we must pay attention to.
Our sovereign God is a patient, loving God that extends grace and mercy to those who love Him.
Ephesians 2:4-5 NIV
4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
Psalm 145:8-9 NLT
8 The Lord is merciful and compassionate,
slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.
9 The Lord is good to everyone.
He showers compassion on all his creation.
When it comes to our prayers for others, the Holy Spirit reveals to us the importance of praying for those who are in sin. Our prayers indeed need to continue, with humble hearts, for those who do not have a saving knowledge of Jesus:
James 5:16 NIV
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
The vastness and magnitude of God’s love for us is incalculable.
Romans 8:38-39 NIV
38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Your ongoing discovery of the magnitude of His love continues as you open His Word. Read it. Study it. Memorize it. Meditate on it.
Live for Jesus and lift His name on high.
And if you don’t know Jesus as Lord and Savior of your life, make that decision today.
Copyright © 2024 Melvin Gaines.
1 Wikimedia Foundation. (2024b, November 7). Antinomianism. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antinomianism
2 1 John 5:16. BibleRef.com. (n.d.). https://www.bibleref.com/1-John/5/1-John-5-16.html#:~:text=This%20interpretation%20also%20makes%20better,Chapter%20Context
3 Bolinger, H. (2021, August 16). Meribah in the Bible – what happened with moses striking the rock. Bible Study Tools. https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/topical-studies/why-did-moses-striking-the-rock-at-meribah-prevent-him-from-seeing-the-promised-land.html
Melvin Gaines 