God’s Love is expressed saying, “Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee”; and He proved this love for us while we were still sinners by the death of Christ for us (Jeremiah 31:3; Romans 5:8).
3.1. THE SELFLESS ENABLING LOVE
Love as sacrifice is selfless and enables the recipient of some benefit of kindness and goodness, rather than evil or harm. The selflessness of God’s Love is that it is not premised on our love for him “but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins”. (1 John 4:10).
The love that is of God “seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, [and] thinketh no evil…” (1 Corinthians 13:5). Christ suffered death, so that by the Grace of God He might taste death for all mankind. (Hebrews 2:9).
God revealed His selfless love to us by sending His only begotten son into the world so that we might live through Him. (1 John 3:1 & 4:9). “Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour”; and through his blood those who were far away have been brought nearer to God (Ephesians 5:2; 2:13).
Brethren, the sacrificial Love of God is not conditioned by or consequent upon our love for him or upon our righteousness. It is not based on reciprocity. In fact, we were sinners and were undeserving of his Love when He offered his son for our salvation by Grace (Romans 5:8). God’s Love “rejoiceth not in iniquity, but Rejoiceth in the truth”. To this end, Jesus sanctified himself for us, so that we too may be sanctified by the truth(1 Corinthians 13:6; John 17:19).
3.2. LOVE IS GIVING OR FORBEARING
Sacrificial Love entails an act of ‘willing giving’ or some forbearance. For example, the element of this “Great Love” of God for mankind is that He has given us “power to become sons of God” and to be called “Children of God”; and to this purpose Jesus gave his life for us (John 1:12; Ephesians 2:4).
Also, despite our being sinners, God has made us alive with Jesus Christ, has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Him, according to the riches of his Grace; and has given us eternal comfort and good hope (Ephesians 2:5-6; 2 Thessalonians 2:16)
People of God, the demonstration of love as sacrifice is ‘giving’ – God so loved the world, that He gave Jesus in sacrifice so that we do not perish; and Jesus “lay down his life for his friends”. (John 1:14,18).
We also see that out of love, God forbears to punish us for our transgressions, enduring much long-suffering the “vessels of wrath” that he might show us his “vessels of mercy” that he prepared unto Glory (Isaiah 53:5-6; Romans 9:22-23)
3.3. LOVE EMPOWERS TO OBEDIENCE
An important element of God’s love in sacrifice is that it empowers one to obey God’s word. For instance Jesus clearly demonstrates in “laying down of his life’ that one can cultivate God’s love by one’s willingness to follow his commandment; and that God endows one with power to do his will.
To understand the empowering nature of love one must first know that “Love is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, which is the power of God. (Galatians 5:22; Genesis 1:2; Luke 1:35). This makes the exercise of Love in obedience to God’s will a spiritual endeavour. One must believe on the power of God from the heart to believe in his word and act upon it.
Speaking of the commandment received from his father Jesus says: “I have power to lay [my life] down, and I have power to take it again” (John 10:8).
We must note however that the exercise of the power to obey is not forced since the decision to obey God’s word or not remains a selfless and willing choice one must make. The spirit of Love once cultivated empowers one to bear all things, believe, hope, and endure all things; and it does not wane or fail. (1 Corinthians 13:7-8)
4. GOD’S COMMAND ON LOVE
