[Passage]
[1 John 4: 11-13]
“Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.”
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
This is the 41st session of Lecture on 1 John.
In the previous session, I had to stop while talking about how God’s love is manifested in us, based on chapter 4 verse 10. It says, “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.”
We used to stand against God and distanced ourselves from Him while we were living in sins. To save such sinners, God gave His only begotten Son who was blameless. Sinners cannot meet, communicate with, or receive an answer from the holy God. They cannot love God first either.
But God first loved us and forgave us of our sins through the blood of His only begotten Son. In doing so, God made peace between Himself and us, so that we can love God now. We can receive salvation, answers from God, and blessings, too.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
We must never forget this fact. We must not forget even for a moment that the precious Son of God died for sinners like us. Jesus suffered the pain of death in place of us who had been destined to fall into the fire of Hell. Because of sinners like us, the body of the innocent Son of God was scourged to the extent that His bones were exposed. He loved us to the point that His hands and feet were nailed through and until He eventually shed all His water and blood and died.
The grace of buying our lives through His blood must be engraved in our hearts whether we are asleep or awake, and whether we live or die. The gratitude for Jesus Christ, the cross of the Lord, and the love of God who saved us must flow out from our hearts. The profession of our gratitude must come out because we are so overwhelmed by God’s love.
If we do not feel this love even through we think about the sufferings of the cross, we must realize how hardened our hearts are. If we do not have fullness of emotions even when we think of the cross of Jesus and sing the love of the Father God, we have to know we have a hardened heart and repent about it.
I am not saying you should be disheartened thinking you do not feel such thankful emotions for God’s grace because your heart is evil. It means you have to more earnestly long to feel the love of God and actually realize it more deeply.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Sometimes, some people have questions like the following. “Will God still love a person like me, who has been living in the darkness of the world so much?” “Will God know a person like me, who is not important at all?” “Will the great God hear the prayer of such a lowly person as I?” “Isn’t it kind of embarrassing to pray to God about such trivial matters?”
You Manmin members are more than able to answer such questions, aren’t you? We live in such filthy sins, but God truly loves us. And He gave away His only begotten Son to the cross to prove that fact.
Also, God is so great, but at the same time, He is very delicate and kind. Even though we are just small creatures, He counts even the hairs on our head, and He gives answers to the smallest desire of little children.
Even though our faith might be weak yet, He kindly answers us and lets us experience His love as long as we ask Him truthfully, believing in His love. Furthermore, for those who have cast off sins and evil, become sanctified, and recovered the lost image of God, they can feel the great love of God in their lives.
Zephaniah 3:17 says, “The LORD your God is in your midst, A victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.” As said, God lets them dwell in God’s love all the time because He exults over them with joy.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Even physically, after a father gains his children, he takes the responsibility of raising them until they become fully grown adults. He would not just leave them saying, “You have been given birth, and I’ve done enough. You are on your own from now.” The same goes for God the Father, too. After creating men in His own image, He did not just leave us be. He prepared everything that was needed for us to come forth as His true children.
At each generation, He sent prophets or men of God to deliver His heart to people. He showed signs and wonders to them so they could have faith. He gave them the commandments, taught them the truth and the will of God, and then He helped them live by His will.
Also, when the time came, He sent Jesus to open the way for them to be saved. Even after the Lord’s resurrection and ascension into Heaven, He did not leave us like orphans but sent to us the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit always dwells in us, gently teaching us the heart and will of God and giving us the strength to live by God’s will. When God’s children depart from the truth, He accepts Satan’s accusations so that they can have a chance to turn from their wrong ways.
Allowing Satan’s accusations does not mean He turns His face away from them with hatred. He looks at them with concern, hoping they would change. Also, every time they ask with faith, He answers them and lets them experience the power of the Holy Spirit. All these things are the love of God who takes the responsibility for our lives.
He did not just create us; He did not just send the Savior. Just like parents raise their children, He prepares with us all the things that are needed for the human cultivation, and involves Himself in our lives delicately with His love.
Romans 8:32 says, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” When you believe this love and rely on it, and when you obey the will of God, He delicately takes care of every affair of your life. I pray in the name of the Lord that you will more abundantly experience the love of God who gives everything to us without sparing, so that your life will be filled with testimonies.
