Christmas...The Divine Expression of Divine Love

1 John 4:7-11

Christmas...The Expression of Divine Love

"Dear brothers, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God because God is love. 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. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we ought also to love one another."

Throughout the Bible we see the love of God displayed clearly. From creation to the cross there is a theme of love woven into every moment. There are five aspects of love to look at today: love of God to Himself, Trinitarian love, love of God to His people, the love of His people to God, and the love of His people to one another. Agape love is a self-sacrificing love, an earnest and anxious desire for others. This love is displayed by focusing on others. True self-sacrifice. This self-sacrificing love is displayed to Himself, He displays it by loving Himself. Many cannot fathom God loving Himself the highest, some would call it narcissism. But it is either God worships us first or Himself first. We are not here for Him to serve. God's highest love is for Himself. In the sending of Christ, it is true that it was a picture of the love to God's people to save them, but it was also a picture of God's love to glorify Himself and upholding His law. He is meeting the standard which He set. 

Selfless love is shown in the giving love given among the Trinity. The Father shows unique love for the Son in this passage. He sends His only Son, there is a certain tenderness in this passage that speaks of the love between Father and Son. The Son goes as commanded from the Father and the Father sends the Son in order to further glorify the Son. God did not create the world in order to have people to love. He did not make the world because He was lonely. The inter Trinitarian love was constantly present long before the world was created. We see the Son agreeing to come save this people out of love for the Father and the Father so loves His Son that He gives Him a people all of His own. He loves Himself and He loves the whole Trinity. He does all He does for His glory and for the pursuit of the glory of the Trinity. God is preoccupied in Himself while at the same time His love is overwhelmingly selfless. If our love was half as true love as God's is then we are blessed. Our prayer life should be filled with thanks for His love and for the request to be more like Him. We should not think of ourselves more highly than we ought. We see this in how the Trinity gives so freely. 

We now move to the love of God to His people. Especially at Christmas we are moved to see how great and magnificent God's love for us is. In sending His Son, He displays His selfless love for us to save us. God is interested in our good. He will not give us a stone if we ask for a fish. How touching, how amazing, how breathtaking that God loves us! 1 John 3:1a "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us!"  Yes, God loves Himself, but also He loves us. The love of a husband to his wife or the wife to the husband is that the love will spill over and bless the family. The love pours over and is applied to the children and those around. This is the love of God: first to Himself but it over pours to apply to us as well. Without that love we would be nothing. Without that love demonstrated by the sending of the Son, we would be twisted and selfish dying sinners. With the love, though, we have the opportunity to live and love others as has been given to us. We now live because of Christ and because of this we ought to lift up our eyes and be burdened for those outside of Christ and to offer up prayers for their salvation. 

The love of God's people to God: we are focusing our love upon Him and no longer within ourselves. We cannot love one another without loving God first. "Love The Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and might, and love your neighbor as yourself." We love Him first and then others. We show our love by keeping His commandments. That is the true love to God, that we are in keeping with His law and defining true love according to that. 

We are to love one another. We see the love of God to us and so we turn around and love one another. We carry one another's burdens. We serve one another by taking care of one another and thinking of others as higher than ourselves. We give to each other at every turn. We see the demonstrated love and so we have a privilege to love and serve one another. The world talks about love so much these days, but the love we have in this season is manifested by the great love given as an example to us by Christ. The love we are to give is the deep love as set out by Scripture.