I'd like to share with you the revelation of love. There are so many Scriptures about love that I cannot possibly cover them all in this post, but I'm going to share some key ones to make the point that I am led to share with you. I'm going to discuss The Father's love for us, the Father's love for Jesus, the love of Jesus for us, our love for God, and our love for one another.
The Father's Love for Us
First and foremost is the love of God for us. This is spoken of all throughout Scripture, but the most famous one is:
“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." (Jn 3:16).
God loves us all so much that He gave His one and only Son to come into this world as God's Lamb to be sacrificed for our sins. He didn't just tell us with words that He loved us, but He demonstrated it to us. Scripture says:
"But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Rom 5:8).
He did that for us while we were still sinners, so clearly God took the initiative. As the apostle John says:
"This is how God showed his love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." (1 Jn 4:9-10).
Now that we've touched on the fact that the Father was first to love us and demonstrate His love for us by sending His Son, let's look at the Father's love for Jesus.
The Father's Love for Jesus
The father's love for Jesus is, of course, greater than His love for anyone else. In order to understand just how much the Father loves us, we need to understand His love for Jesus, since He sent Him into the world to save us. Here are just a few of the Scriptures that declare the Father's love for Jesus:
"The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands." (Jn 3:35).
When Jesus was baptized in water and with the Holy Spirit, "a voice from heaven said, 'This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.'” (Mt 3:17).
When Jesus was transfigured on the sacred mountain, and His clothes became dazzling white before Peter, James, and John, the Father declared His love for Jesus again.
"While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” (Mt 17:5).
There can be no doubt, based on the Word of God, that the Father's love for Jesus is supreme. It's the highest form of love, known as agape ("a-GA'-pey") love in the original Greek.
The Love of Jesus for Us
Jesus, in turn, loved us with the same love the Father has for Him.
He said, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love." (Jn 15:9).
This clearly show that Jesus loved us just as the Father loved Him (key words: "just as"), and His love for us hasn't changed. But we can change, and that is why we are responsible to remain in His love by the way we live. More on that in the next section.
"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers." (1 Jn 3:16).
We know what love is by the fact that Jesus Christ laid down His life for us on the cross. He doesn't have to prove His love for us, since He already proved it on the cross. Such redeeming love, unfailing love, everlasting love, steadfast love, and faithful love did He demonstrate for us on Calvary! It is a love that is nothing like what we humans call love here on earth. His response to the Father's love for Him was to please the Father, obeying the Father's command to lay down His life on the cross for us. And Jesus taught that there is no greater love than this.
"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." (Jn 15:13).
If you could experience in person the love of Jesus for you, as many people have in after-death experiences, you would feel as though He loved only you, or that He loved you more than anyone else on earth; however, that's the same way He loves everyone. There is no greater love than the love of Jesus, for nobody loves you like Jesus.
This brings us to our love for God.
Our Love for God
Our love for God is our response to the love He has first shown to us through His sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for us. Perhaps the verse that best teaches this effect is the following one:
He said, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love." (Jn 15:9).
This shows the love initiating with the Father for Jesus, flowing through Jesus as He responded to that love by loving us with the same love the Father had for Him, and then the need for us to remain in His love. This begs the question, "How do I remain in the love of Jesus?" The answer is found in the very next verse, in which Jesus said:
"If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in His love." (Jn 15:10).
Do you see how to respond to the love of Jesus for you, which was His response to the Father's love for Him? We respond to the love of Jesus by remaining in His love, and we remain in His love by obeying His commands. This is the same way that Jesus responded to the Father's love for Him: He obeyed the Father's commands and remained in His love. Therefore, Jesus commands us to do the same.
"Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.” (Jn 14:21).
Our Love for One Another
Since we respond to the love of Jesus by remaining in His love, and we remain in His love by obeying His commands, then it's necessary to know what He commands. Jesus said:
"My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you." (Jn 15:12).
We remain in the love of Jesus by obeying His command to love each other with the same love Jesus has for us, which is the same supreme kind of love the Father has for Jesus. It's the perfect love that Jesus showed us when He laid down His life for us, as was previously stated:
"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers." (1 Jn 3:16).
We respond to the love of Jesus by loving each other, and we love each other by laying down our lives for our brothers. We love others by being kind, compassionate, and forgiving toward them. We even love our enemies, as the Lord commanded us to do (Mt 5:44).
That kind of love that we show to each other in response to the love of Jesus for us will then bring about a loving response in the hearts and lives of those we love, as they in turn love others with that same kind of love. It's like a chain reaction. As the Scripture says: "We love because he first loved us." (1 Jn 4:19). It just keeps on flowing from one person to the next, and this pleases the Father.
Peter's Reinstatement
Most of us have heard of the Lord's reinstatement of Peter as an apostle, following his denial of Christ. Let me break that down for you and show how it illustrates the point I've been making.
First let me say that while there is one word for love in English, there are multiple words for love in the original Greek language that the Bible was written in. These Greek words reflect the various Aramaic words that Jesus and Peter used in their conversation together.
There is first of all agape love, which is the perfect, supreme, highest kind of love that God has and that Jesus has. Then there is philos ("FEE'-los"), which is brotherly love that brothers have for each other, whereby they love or like each other. Then there is storge (STOR'-gey), which is "natural affection" or "affection between family members," often used to describe the love between parents and children. And finally there is eros, from which we get the word "erotic", which is the kind of love that involves the unique intimacy meant to be shared only between a husband and wife. Eros translates to "love" and "desire," specifically referring to sensual, romantic, or passionate love.
In the reinstatement of Peter, just as Peter had denied the Lord three times, now after the resurrection, the Lord asked him three times if he loved Him. First Jesus appeared on the shore after the disciples had been fishing all night and caught nothing, and He enabled them to make a huge catch. Then He fed them some breakfast of fish and bread that he had cooking over the hot coals, along with some of the fish they caught. Afterward he questioned Peter:
1. First ask: When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you truly love (Gr., agape) me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love (Gr., phileo) you.” Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” (Jn 21:15)
Notice that Jesus asked him if he loved Him with agape love, and Peter responded that he loved Jesus with philos, or brotherly love. He had been humbled by his denial. Whereas he previously declared so proudly that he would never deny the Lord and would go to prison or death with Him, now he was only able to say with a more honest evaluation of himself that he possessed a definite philos love for Jesus.
Notice that the Lord's response to Peter was to command him to feed His lambs, which are the people of God, and that was to be His way of showing His love for Jesus. He was reinstated as an apostle of God sent by the Lord to serve His people.
2. Second ask: Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you truly love (Gr., agape) me?” He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love (Gr., philo) you.” Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.” (Jn 21:16)
Once again, Jesus asked Peter if he had agape love for Him, and Peter responded that he had philos love for Him. And once again, Jesus commanded him to take care of His sheep, which is the role of a shepherd or pastor, and that involves caring for people. This is how Jesus wanted Peter to demonstrate his love for Jesus.
3. Third ask: Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you truly love (Gr., phileo) me?” He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love (Gr., phileo) you.” Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.” (Jn 21:17).
Notice how Jesus now switched to asking Peter if he possessed the brotherly kind of love for Jesus, since He saw that Peter no longer had the confidence to say that he loved Jesus with the highest kind of love shown by Christ. Jesus seemed to condescend to Peter by now using the same word for love that Peter was using.
Finally, Jesus told Peter:
I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go. ”Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!” (Jn 21:18-19)
Jesus was foretelling to Peter that in the future in Peter's old age, he would stretch out his hands (perhaps to allow others to bind him with ropes), and someone would dress him (perhaps with ropes to bind him), and that they would lead Peter to a martyr's death. Legend has it that Peter was crucified, but that he insisted on being crucified upside down, since he considered himself unworthy to die right side up as his Lord was. The Lord commanded Peter to follow Him just as He had originally called Peter to follow Him, and this would include following Him not only in his life but in his death. The Lord wanted Peter to know that this was how Peter would show his love for Jesus.
What this teaches us is that our love for God is not something we initiate, as Peter originally did when he pridefully told Jesus that he would go to prison and death with Him. It is something we do from a humble and contrite heart when we realize what the Lord has done for us on the cross despite our own sinfulness and unworthiness, and we respond to His love with that same kind of love. Therefore, our love is a response to God's love for us, His love for Jesus, and Jesus' love for us. It flows through us when we have been humbled as Peter was through his past experience of failing the Lord and being forgiven.
After-death Testimonies of Love
Many people, who have had experiences of life after death, near death experiences, and out of body experiences, have returned to testify that God is love, and that love is the whole point of our life on earth. John the apostle also said that God is love (1 Jn 4:8). And Paul the apostle said that without love we are nothing, even if we have great faith, great knowledge, and rich generosity (see 1 Cor 13).
Here are short excerpts from what a few different people said upon returning from their experience with God in heaven or with Jesus:
The first one said of life, "It's all about love. Love is the goal of all that exists regardless of where and how it exists. Love is the origin of all that exists. Love is the origin and the goal. All decisions in life need to be tested by the only valid question: Am I doing this out of love? If you follow that rule, you follow what your life is ultimately about. Then you do what you were born to do."
Another person who encountered the Lord in a near death experience said: “Growing in faith and learning to love God is the point of life.”
A man named Thomas B. wrote after his near death experience that the meaning of life is to “Learn how to love others properly. This is a test to see if you are worthy. And it is never too late to stop bad behavior and turn back to love, which is what we are designed for.”
Howard Storm, who died of a perforated stomach in a hospital while he was still an atheist, said that after he died, he met Jesus who called over a group of angels: "[The angels] gave me a life review and we went over my life in very great detail. And the life review, at the conclusion of it, I realized that I was here to love people, to be compassionate, to love God and love one another and I had utterly failed." Afterward he had a chance to ask Jesus any questions he wanted to ask Him. Then he said to the Lord, "Now I want to go to heaven." And Jesus said, "No, you've got to go back to the earth and do this the way you were created to do it in the first place: to live a life the way God created you to live a life," which Storm says he knew "very [clearly] was to love, to be a loving, kind person, loving God, loving my fellow man."
Closing Words
In closing, I tried to be as concise as possible on such a broad topic. I hope that this article has helped unveil this revelation of love that God has for us, for Jesus, and that Jesus has for us, and how we are to repent, humble ourselves, and respond to with the same kind of love by obeying God's commands and loving one another. Life is all about love. In fact, learning to love God and others is the whole point of life and its goal.
Attribution notice: Scripture take from the Holy Bible NIV, copyright Zondervan, used by permission. Image may be subject to copyright, used per the Fair Use Act for educational and commentary purposes only.
Do You Want to Know Him?If you want to know Jesus, you can. It all begins when you repent and believe in Him. Do you know what God's Word, the Bible says?
“Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” (Mar 1:14b-15). He preached that we must repent and believe. Please see my explanation of this in my post called "Do You Want to Know Jesus?" ______________________________________
Len Lacroix is the founder of
Doulos Missions International. He was based in Eastern Europe for four years, making disciples, as well as helping leaders to be more effective at making disciples who multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the ultimate goal of planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United States with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission.
www.dmiworld.org.
