SEMESTER 2
121 – THE LOVE OF GOD
BIBLE INSTITUTE OF CORRESPONDENCE
COURSE: THEOLOGY II LESSON # 21
THE LOVE OF GOD
Read I John 3:1-2
, I John 10-11, and I John 4:7-11.
INTRODUCTION:
1. In these passages, we have found sufficient commandment to keep us trying for a long time.
i. See what the meaning of love is, and is not.
2. In I John we are given something of the nature of God’s love.
i. Characteristics: eternal, immutable, sovereign, effectual. (Jer. 31:3)
3. Let us try to characterize God’s love to know what ours should be like.
I. IT IS OBJECTIVE, NOT SUBJECTIVE (MAT. 5:43-48
)
1. By this, I mean it is controlled by God, not the circumstances.
2. He loves us because He is divine, not because we are lovely.
3. Christian love must be an attribute of the new divine nature.
4. We despair sometimes of loving each other, because we are searching within the natural man.
5. Objective love is outgoing, active, not just emotional.
III: Love for your children. Do you love them just when you are pleased with them, and do good unto them only when they act to suit you?
6. Does God love us and treat us this way? Certainly not!
7. So ought we to love one another.
8. Manifestations of God’s love.
i. The gift of His Son.
ii. The calling of sinners.
iii. The discipline of His children.
II. GOD’S LOVE IS COMPULSIVE, NOT IMPULSIVE (I JN. 4:7,8)
1. By this, I mean that it flows out of a disciplined design, not impulse.
2. Impulsive love is reactionary or expectant. This is something like our love for God.
III: We love God, because He first loved us.
3. This kind of love for each other will never do, because of our nature.
III: If our love for each other must always be secondary, we are at a standoff.
4. Our love must be compulsive. (I will love Gods people.)
III: Your friends know you, and love you anyhow.
III. GOD’S LOVE IS VICARIOUS, NOT DIRECT IN MOTIVE (EPH. 4:29-32)
III: We may love a friend for their sake, or even our sake.
1. We are told, we are loved and forgiven for Christ’s sake.
2. By the same standard, we should love each other for Christ’s sake.
III: How you can love a mischievous little brat of a brother, or a friend.
3. So ought we to learn to love each other, because of mutual sonship.
4. This is how God loves through us, and it is infinitely important.
5. Let us strive, as His disciples and according to His commandment, to love one another, as He has loved us.