People all over the world are looking for love.
There are over 70,000 books and more than 60,000 musical albums available on Amazon that have the word love in the title or deal with the subject of love. A Google search reveals billions of websites that include love as one of their key words.
The Bible is a book about a love story. It is about God’s love for humanity and His wooing of our affection through a mediator, His Son. The word love (in various forms) is found 419 times in the Bible. The book of 1 John has love for its theme. It tells us that “God is love” (1 John 4:8) and then shows how God has demonstrated His love (3:16; 4:9–10).
Love is not just something we feel. Love requires action; it is demonstrated through behavior. God’s love is more than just talk. He demonstrated compassion so we would learn to be compassionate. As Paul said, “He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:24). John wrote, “My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18; cf. James 2:15–16).
GOD DEMONSTRATES HIS LOVE FOR US BY GIFT-GIVING
One of the five languages of love is gift-giving.1 We enjoy surprising our mates with a little something we picked up on a trip. We take pleasure in giving presents to our children during the holidays. We celebrate graduations, weddings, and births with gift-giving.
God also uses this love language to express His sentiments to man. He “gave gifts to men” (Ephesians 4:8). He leaves no one out; even His avowed enemies get daily gifts from the Creator they deny. “The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works” (Psalm 145:9). He gives us sunshine and rain, fruitful seasons, and beautiful vistas. Paul and Barnabas explained that God “did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness” (Acts 14:17; cf. Matthew 5:45).
GOD DEMONSTRATES HIS LOVE FOR US THROUGH THE LIFE OF HIS SON
Jesus helped us to get to know the God of love. Eighty-six occurrences of love are found in the eighty-nine chapters of Jesus’ biographies. When compassion is included, the total increases to one hundred times. Jesus told Philip, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). We see Jesus’ love demonstrated in feeding hungry people (John 6), healing hurting people (Matthew 4:24), directing lost people (Matthew 9:35–36), correcting wrong people (Matthew 23), accepting rejected people (Luke 19:1–10), and dying for lost people (Matthew 20:28).
Someone once wrote about a traveler who fell into a deep pit and could not get out. Several persons came along and saw him struggling in the pit.
The sensitive person said, “I feel for you down there.”
The reflective person said, “It’s logical that someone would fall into the pit.”
The aesthetic person said, “I can give you ideas on how to decorate your pit.”
The judgmental person said, “Only bad people fall into pits.”
The curious person said, “Tell me how you fell into the pit.”
The perfectionist said, “I believe you deserve your pit.’’
The evaluator asked, “Are you paying taxes on this pit?”
The self-pitying person said, “You should have seen my pit.”
The counselor said, “Just relax. Do not think about the pit.”
The optimist said, “Cheer up! Things could be worse.”
The pessimist said, “Be prepared! Things will get worse.”
Jesus, seeing him, loved him, and lifted him out of the pit.2
A Christian can truthfully sing, “I was sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore” when “love lifted me!’’
GOD DEMONSTRATES HIS LOVE FOR US THROUGH THE DEATH OF HIS SON
God has an infallible track record. He can be trusted. He has proven beyond question that He loves us. The Bible says, “God demonstrates3 His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
John Griffith lived in Oklahoma in 1929, and he lost all he had in the stock market crash. He moved to Mississippi, where he took a job tending a bridge for a railroad trestle. One day in 1937, his eight-year-old son, Greg, spent the day with his dad at work. He played in the office that morning and asked a thousand questions.
Then a ship came through, and John opened the drawbridge. Suddenly, he realized his son was not in the office. Frantically, he looked around, and to his horror saw him climbing on the gears of the draw bridge. He hurried outside to rescue his son, but just then he heard what he knew was a fast-approaching passenger train, the Memphis Express, filled with four hundred people. He yelled to his son, but the noise of the clearing ship and the oncoming train made it impossible for the boy to hear him. John Griffith realized his horrible dilemma. If he took the time to rescue his son, the train would crash and kill all aboard. If he closed the bridge, he would sacrifice his son.
He made the decision he would relive ten thousand times and pulled the lever to close the bridge. As the train went by, he could see some passengers’ faces. Some were reading, some waved, and all were oblivious to the sacrifice that had just been made on their behalf.
God once faced a similar dilemma. He could not save sinners and spare Jesus, too. How could He be “just” and “justifier” at the same time? (cf. Romans 3:26). God had to allow the jaws of death to close on His Son. He “did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all” (Romans 8:32). Millions go by oblivious and indifferent, even some who know the sacrifice.
Still, there is one tremendous difference between the two fathers. Unlike the Memphis Express that caught John Griffith by surprise, sending Jesus was not a panic move. It was not a spontaneous decision. It was planned. Paul said, “When the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law” (Galatians 4:4). Jesus’ death was not the result of jealous Jews or hard-hearted Romans. It was the result of a loving God who saw there was no other way to save man. “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us” (1 John 3:16).
Since people are looking for love, and “God is love” (1 John 4:8),4 God is what people are looking for!
Endnotes
1Chapman, Gary. The Five Love Languages. Chicago: Northfield Publishing, 2014.
2Author unknown.
3simistao, sunistano, simistemi “to set together, that is, (by implication) to introduce (favorably), or (figuratively) to exhibit; intransitively to stand near, or (figuratively) to constitute.”
4For more, see “The Scourging of Jesus.” https://housetohouse.com/the-scourging-of-Jesus/.
