Rewarding Faith:

                       “God Is Love”

 

 

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

John 3:16.

 

And we have known and believed the love that God has for us.

God is love, and he who abides (dwells) in love abides in God, and God in him.  1John 4:16.

 

In all of the world’s religions there is only one teaching that expounds on the God kind of love and that is the word of God itself.

 

First of all we see from John’s gospel that God so loved the world.

Well, what does it mean to mankind that God loves the world?

 

To understand this we need to look at the act of creation. It is believed and understood by those who have chosen to follow

Christian doctrine that our God is a God of faith.                         

 

Meaning that He has faith in and is fully convinced that the words that He speaks audibly will come to pass.

 

Look at Isaiah 55:11, “So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”

 

Then in Hebrews 11:3, By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

 

To some it is hard to believe that a spirit being, God is Spirit, made the decision to speak words of faith and these words of faith that can’t be seen caused the things that are visible now before our eyes, to come into being. But if we are true believers then this is exactly what we are called to believe.

 

There are some who say they believe the Bible to be God’s word but they turn around and say I just can’t believe in the incarnation, it seems impossible that a virgin could give birth to a child without first knowing a man.

 

Well if you look at the text you will see that Mary made the decision to believe and when she spoke, “Let it be to me according to Your word,” she did exactly what all believers are called to do, believe it, speak it and you shall receive it.

 

In teaching His disciples Jesus said this, “ Have faith in God (constantly). For assuredly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, be removed and be cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will come to pass, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say unto you whatever things you ask when you pray believe you receive them and you shall have them.”  Mark 11:22-24.

 

Now you may ask, “What does faith have to do with love?”

 

Faith has everything to do with love because you see they walk hand in hand. You cannot have one without the other.

 

In teaching the Galatians the difference between the doctrine of the law and the New Testament doctrine Paul says this, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.  Galatians 5:6.

 

As usual the Amplified Bible gives us a clearer picture of what Paul was teaching, he says, “For (if we are) in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything (both are useless as far as salvation is concerned), but only faith activated and energized and expressed and working through love.

 

We as believers are involved with and should be immersed in a new covenant that consists of faith filled words written down by man but given by inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

 

We are called to believe that our creator caused the natural worlds and everything that we see to come into being by faith working through love. Then we are called to believe that God sent His Son to be our redeemer and when we accept Him by faith working through love then and only then can we receive everlasting life.

 

Now here comes the greatest part of our covenant with the Father.

 

Now hope does not disappointment, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

And, nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Romans 5:5 and 8:39.

 

What we have just read is an answer to the prayer that Jesus prayed for all believers in John chapter 17 just prior to His arrest and crucifixion.

 

Look at this, “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as you, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one.

 

I in them and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.”  John 17: 20-23.

 

So now we have come full circle, God is love and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

 

Now after all of this we should be asking ourselves one question, “How do I get to the place where I can abide in love and therefore abide in God?”

 

First things first, we know that God doesn’t have love but God is Love, He didn’t look around the universe, spot love out there in great vastness of space and say, “I’ve got to get me some of that.” No, that kind of action is reserved for us lowly, selfish humans. His love is incomparable.

 

Love is God’s perfect nature, it is the motivating force behind His actions, remember, for God so loved that He gave. If this same force were applied into the world system there would be no problems in any society whatsoever.

 

We lowly humans talk about love as if we understand what its true meaning really is. We say I love you, I love my car, I love my house, I love my children, some even profess to love their in-laws and expect us to believe them. Ha Ha.

 

No, we simply can’t understand real love until we come into contact with the source. If we are not plugged in then we have no revelation of the power or where it emanates from.

 

I remember as a boy we were without electricity for a while so that meant once the sun went down we were in the dark. When you are in the dark you obviously can’t see and therefore you stumble around and bump into things and sometimes bigger problems arise.

 

This is exactly how the world operates without God’s light to show us the way.

 

We stumble and fall both mentally, physically and even spiritually because we are not connected to the reality of God’s kingdom that Jesus promised would someday be in us. Luke 17:21.

 

In His teaching in Matthew chapter six, Jesus was focusing our attention on natural physical things and how we are always seeking after something temporal and then He tries to clue us in on a spiritual truth that if we diligently adhered to, it would set us free.

 

Look at this, my words, “You people, in all of your carnality, are always looking or seeking after things, when all the while your heavenly Father knows exactly what you need, and He is saying this to you, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.”  Matthew 6: 32-33.

 

Now this is reality even today but the truth is God’s kingdom has come to earth and His name is Jesus.

 

Many times in his writings to the church Paul the apostle mentions the kingdom of God and Jesus the Christ in the same context. Why? Because they are one and the same. You cannot separate the kingdom of God and Jesus Christ because He not only represents the kingdom but He is the doorway that we must walk through if we are to enter into God’s presence.  John 10:9.

 

Let me ask you this, “How did this doorway come to be and by what means did it come about? I’m glad you asked.

 

For God (who is love) so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

 

It is amazing how this one verse can have so much revelation into the kingdom of God and how this kingdom operates.

 

Let us see what we have learned from the word, first we saw that God is Love, and because His love is unselfish then it desires to give, in giving it gave the greatest gift that our Creator could ever give, it gave us the doorway into salvation whose name is Jesus, and in turn He makes it possible for whosoever to simply call on this name and be saved.  Amen.

 

Written by: R W Nagle.