 By James H. Cagle |
“And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him” (1 John 4: 16 KJV).
God’s love is an intellectual principle and has in it the element of wisdom that sees and plans the best for its object. God’s love is a principle of good will and wishes good to its object. God’s love is morally conditioned and expresses itself in righteousness. “God’s grace is His love going out after the unholy in character and seeking to transform them into the image of His holy character.”
A Christian is someone who has believed the love of God that was manifested at Calvary for sinners and through faith has known and experienced it and now by the Spirit manifests that same love to others continually.
By John saying that God is love he’s saying that love is the very nature of God. Though God is “Love” He is also “Holy.” We mistakenly think that Love cannot punish evil. But God as holy is angry at all that is unholy and must because of His holiness punish evil (Psalm 7: 11).
He punished all sin and poured out His wrath at Calvary upon His Son Jesus Christ who was the substitute for sinners—“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5: 8). “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (Jn. 3: 16).
To reject the Gospel message is to reject God’s love as demonstrated at Calvary for undeserving sinners. By accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior we come to know and experience God’s love personally, for it is only through Jesus Christ that we experience the love of God. True love is only possible to those who are possessed of the Spirit of God. It is then in God’s love that we abide, and not our own. Where there is true love there is God: where there is God there is true love. Where there is a Christian dwelling in love, dwelling in a condition of self-surrender to God, which is the highest ideal of love, there is true love.
This love makes the Christian both the “light” and the “salt” to the world that they need to be (Mt. 5: 13, 14).
The Christian is one that “dwelleth in love,” or continually exhibits a Christ like love as their natural and proper condition or state, and this is proof that they are Christians and dwell in God.
It takes a strong faith to love like Jesus loves. Love is a choice that consist firstly of obedience to God (Mk. 12: 30; Jn. 14: 15, 21; 1 Jn. 5: 3) and then of loving one’s brethren (Jn. 13: 35) and neighbor as themselves (Mt. 5: 43, 44; Mk. 12: 31).
