How sweet it is to be loved by Him!

Ok, I stole the idea of the title from an old song that many of you, I'm sure are familiar with. Please forgive me. I don't like the song, but those words tie in well with the text that is on my heart this morning. I've been talking with a few friends lately about 1 John. It is a powerful book which contains theology that helps us as believers to "practice" what the other books teach us. I went through this book not too long ago with my high school students on Wednesday night. We experienced a wonderful study together...I'd encourage you to go through all of it. The book is only 5 chapters..you can read it in under 10 minutes! Give it a shot...come on.

I love the text in 1 John 4:10. Look at this verse with me. "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." To quote a phrase that many of my students often say, "SICK!" We get our definition of love, (backing up to verse 7) from the ONE that loves us! This word for love used here is: agape (ag-ah'-pay: love, i.e. affection or benevolence; specially (plural) a love-feast -- (feast of) charity(-ably), dear, love). I like that definition: "love feast." We love...we know love...we experience love...we even use the word (often times when we don't mean it)...because HE FIRST LOVED US! It's not that we loved God...but He loved us and sent His Son to show us why. I believe nobody will understand the love of God without knowing how He expressed that love. It was expressed at the cross.

The word used here, "propitiation" is defined as: atonement, i.e. (concretely) an expiator -- propitiation. In other words, it means that Christ paid the fine (Heb 9:22) for our sins (Gen 3:7-21) so that we can experienced the wealth of God's eternal love (Romans 5:1-8). Oh, how sweet it is loved to be loved by...HIM! This is TRUE LOVE. This is a steadfast, undeserving love that none of us deserve, but by His grace, we receive it. It's only by the blood.

Do I live like I'm loved by Him? Do you live daily like you are truly loved by Him? I believe when it gets into our minds that its not about us loving God, but Him loving us, then we can do verse 7; "love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God." I believe, through the indwelling of His Marvelous Spirit, we can love one another by means of rejoicing in verse 10! We love, we sing, we preach, we work, we share, we listen, we walk, we run, we read, we talk, we write, we do WHATEVER...because of the driving doctrine that should have full capture of our lives; that doctrine is: In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Please join me as I live my life, rejoicing that I'm loved. However, let us never forget the price that was paid by the King so we can enter the banquet hall one day, righteous, blameless; because of the propitiation of Jesus Christ.

Take time and read 1 John 4:7-10. what a powerful gift! What an amazing definition of TRUE LOVE.

Oh, how sweet it is to be loved by...HIM!