For God so loved the world

Love is the most amazing thing that thrills the human heart. I read a story sometime ago from a leaflet by Amazing Facts Study Guide that summarizes the power of love. A young girl had an English literature book which she was struggling to read through. Everything in the book appeared so boring to her and she could barely stay focus reading it. Few days after, she felt in love with a young professor on campus. Coming to realize the authorship of the boring literature book in her possession as written by this young professor, she stayed all night reading this book and exclaiming: “This is the best book I have ever read!”

Yes, love is the greatest experience in a lifetime. Everybody needs it, and without love, our societies stand to fall apart. Love creates, unifies, and enhances congeniality among human beings and the natural environment. In so many ways, it is the cure to our chaotic world which is deeply paralysed by the adversities of evil. The good news proceeding from scripture is that our God is love. He is because he loved our world and gave to us His only Son (John 3:16). If love is so awesome, and our God is love, what does that tell us?

For God so loved the world

The love of God is practically the first theological virtue we learn after accepting Christ. God as the essence of love means there is no shadows of injustice in Him. Jesus was the first person who proclaimed the awesomeness of God’s love. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Jesus announces the heart of the gospel message. Whiles proclaiming God’s love, He proclaimed His own intervention as the only way of salvation. Both the one who loved us and the one who gave himself for us have great lessons to teach us about love.

Jesus is the instrument of God’s love that has come down to uplift humanity unto God. It is our fallen world that became the object of God’s love. This world was created in love. Why shouldn’t it fall in love with the maker? The blessings humanity and other creatures enjoy are not only numerous but wonderful. In the inspired writings of Ellen White, we encounter this beautiful statement:

Nature and revelation alike testify of God’s love. Our Father in heaven is the source of life, of wisdom, and of joy. Look at the wonderful and beautiful things of nature. Think of their marvelous adaptation to the needs and happiness, not only of man, but of all living creatures. The sunshine and the rain, that gladden and refresh the earth, the hills and seas and plains, all speak to us of the Creator’s love. It is God who supplies the daily needs of all His creatures” (Steps to Christ, p. 9).

After human beings sinned, God’s love was not limited by its nature. Since God does not change, His love does not change either. Since He is eternal, so His love is eternal. In fact the expression of His love became greater towards our world because whiles we were still sinners, He sent Christ to die for us (Rom. 5: 8). Praise God, for His love is greater than sin! And the consequence of His love is greater than that of sin. Whoever is born of God’s love has overcome the world (1 John 5: 1-4).

He loved our world

It took me years of meditation to understand this phrase. I never focused on the word “world”. For sure Jesus is not talking about the world of physical objects such as planets, stars, trees, mountains and etc. He’s talking about the world of human beings; human beings afflicted with sin and en route towards eternal destruction. What is this world and what characterizes it to demand God’s love?

It is our world that is characterized by evil as sinful. Contrary to popular atheistic thinking of the absence of evil in the world, evil is real, not because the Bible talks about it. The reality of evil is common to all human societies. Some are tempted to think that it is the Bible that has branded some acts evil. This position rather inverses the reality. The Bible rather craves the awareness of evil and offers solutions to save humanity. It is the lack of awareness that calls for divine prescription against evil.

This world does not portray a good image of itself, especially today. The rise of terrorism, murder, robbery, corruption, war, economic and political imperialism, etc. are the drama unfolding before our very eyes. There is a rapid and increasing degradation of morality. The sanctity of marriage and family life is been threatened by the rise of divorce, gay marriages and marital unfaithfulness. The estimation of evil in this world is so denser that all human beings will perish if there is no intervention of a savior. It is this kind of world that received God’s gift of love in the person of Jesus Christ.

Isn’t it a good news to know how God loves this crazy world? To me, it feels good in His love. I feel blessed, safe, hopeful, motivated and optimistic about the future. I feel no condemnation (Romans 8:1) to think of it that God loves me. However, it is not the end. The new experience must affect others. If God loves us, we must love others too (1 John 4: 7). Jesus commanded each one of us to love each other (John 13: 34). There is no commandment that says we must love only those who do us good. Jesus condemned such an attitude (Matt. 5: 46). In fact we are commanded to love our enemies (Matt. 5: 43-45; Lk. 6: 27, 28), even the enemies of God (Lk. 23: 34). And since we were once enemies of God but have found grace in His love (Romans 5: 8-10), we must love sinners too. The attitude of judging others does not find a place in the experience of God’s love (Matt. 7: 1, 2). As God’s love presupposes acceptance, tolerance, and salvation, so our love must be a reflection of this awesomeness of God’s love. Love must be the foundation of our church and institutional policies. We must treat persons the way God will treat them. And when our own efforts are failing, we must pray to Him who is the source of love to recharge our love virtue. Love is the greatest virtue we can attain in our spiritual experience (1 Corinthians 13, 13). If God loved us, we too must love one another (Matt. 12: 31).