Love Doesn't Seek to Please People

1 John 3:16 says, "By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us" (ESV). 1 John 4:10 says, "In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (ESV). When Christ laid down His life a propitiation for our sins, people opposed Him. The most direct opposition to the cross came from the apostle Peter, to whom Jesus rightfully responded, "Get behind me, Satan!" Peter was among the three disciples who were closest to Jesus, and even he opposed Christ in going to the cross. Jesus' own hometowan opposed His Messianic ministry, trying to stone Him. The religious leaders opposed His Messianic ministry and also tried to stone Him. Satan tempted Jesus to avoid the cross. What was it that kept Jesus on course to do what no one on earth wanted Him to do? Among other things, it was love for the world, and an even deeper love for His people. Love moved Jesus to do for people what they didn't want Him to do for them. And we are instructed, "Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." This is to be with the same sort of love we have received--a love that doesn't seek to please people but seeks their true good, unto the glory of God.

Who shall separate us from Christ's love?

Again this morning I was really blessed by Romans 8, this time by verses 35-39:

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be abled to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (NIV)

These verses acknowledge that we may very very well face trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakendess, danger, or sword. In fact, the Old Testament speaks of facing the threat of being killed for the Lord's sake all day long. The question is, will such things separate us from the love of Christ? The answer is, absolutely not! Instead, in the midst of all these things, we are more than conquerors through Christ who loved us. As was mentioned back in verses 28-30, God has determined a day in the future when He will glorify us, finally and completely conforming us to the likeness of Christ! On that day, all the hardship will come to an end. And as verse 28 indicates, right now God is using the hardship to bring about His plan of conforming us to the likeness of Christ. This is the greatest love, to be freed from sin to stand face-to-face with Christ in holiness and purity, to be freed from sin to truly gaze upon Christ without shame! He is the greatest treasure!

Love, Grace, and the Gospel

I was meditating upon Ephesians 2:1-10, which emphasizes that we are saved by God's grace. His grace is God's motive in saving us, which means that His motive has nothing to do with anything attractive or appealing in us. A parallel idea is found in verses 4-5, "God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ." Based on this passage, we could define God's grace as the great undeserved love (or favor) God freely gives to people who only deserve wrath from Him (2:3 “by nature children of wrath”).

Now let’s compare the reason we love God, to the reason He loves us so much to save us.

Our reasons are very different, in a sense. We love Him because of how attractive and appealing He is to us. But His saving love has nothing to do with anything attractive or appealing in us. We were in no way attractive or appealing to Him.

Yet there is a sense in which our reasons for loving each other are very similar. We love Him because of how attractive and appealing His grace is to us. And He savingly loves us because of how attractive and appealing His grace is to Him. Because we are attracted to His grace, we receive it, which is loving God. Because He is attracted to His grace, He gives it, which is loving us.

Praise God for the saving grace which He lavishes on His people!