There are many ways to contemplate Biblical love. One method is to describe love in terms of how God has shown His love for us, how Jesus has shown his love for us, and how in turn we are to respond.
God’s love for mankind
God has displayed His love, an “agape” love, for mankind in innumerable ways. In fact, He has done so much for the human race that it is impossible to list more than the briefest of highlights.
He created an environment perfectly orchestrated to contain all the elements, plant life, animal life, and other resources to sustain mankind throughout time. The atmosphere provides the perfect balance of gasses to sustain life, protects us from the dangers of space, and provides life-sustaining rainfall. We have plants to provide food, raw materials, and oxygen. We have the fresh and saltwater bodies to provide water, food, nutritional supplements, and exploration into the unknown. We have an abundance of wildlife for food, companionship, and study — even after thousands of years of man’s use and abuse. The Lord God has provided us with everything we need to sustain ourselves throughout time, if we use it reverently and wisely.
He gave us the free will to choose everlasting life as a member of His family. God could have chosen to create a people that were incapable of free thought. We could have been created something akin to robots, able to obey commands and follow orders, but unable to form independent ideas. Or God could have been a King with a high palace upon a mountaintop, demanding tribute on a regular basis. But He desired a body of people who would seek Him out. As we read in Deuteronomy, God eagerly awaits our return, if we stray away from Him: “But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deut. 4:29).
The LORD God also gave us a guidebook to help us attain eternal life. This book is the story of man and his interaction with the Creator of all. The Bible spans a multitude of generations and provides enough information to learn where we have come from, how and why we were made, our purpose in life, who made us, how to become acceptable to Him, lessons from the one who obeyed perfectly, and the rewards for compliance. And yet, to those who disregard its message, none of these things can even be discerned.
And, of course, God gave us His Son as a sacrifice for our sins. The LORD watched as His Son was jailed, beaten, insulted, and nailed to a cross to die. How would any of us feel to see our children treated in such a manner? Could we endure the heartbreak as these events unfolded? Consider the example of Abraham offering Isaac and we can begin to understand the love God has for us in providing His Son, in whom He was well pleased, as a sacrifice for sin.
Christ’s love for mankind
When we think of the sacrifice of Jesus, we often focus on his death, and indeed it was a huge sacrifice. Few who have lived have dared to lay down their lives for others… but a few have. Mothers have given their lives to protect their children, soldiers for their fellow citizens, husbands in defense of their wives. Every once in a while we hear of a heroic individual who has given his life trying to save a complete stranger, but these examples pale in comparison to the sacrifice of Jesus.
Christ chose to do the will of the Father and became a perfect sacrifice. It was a choice Jesus made! I think at times we forget that Jesus could sin. He chose not to do so — each and every day of his life — to obey his Father and to demonstrate his love for us. He left behind a legacy of righteousness to guide us on the proper path. Consider 1 Peter 2: 21-25:
“To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth. When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”
Think of the many temptations we face on a daily basis. God tells us to turn our backs to all the illicit pleasures this world has to offer and we do… sometimes. But Jesus never gave in to temptation; not even once. He didn’t even allow his thoughts to indulge in fantasy, lest he be led into sin. This was the height and depth of his sacrifice.
Jesus obeyed the Law, and then he fulfilled it. In addition, he also spent his lifetime giving of himself to others: healing and preaching even when tired, hungry, and filled with sorrow. More shocking still, he obeyed God’s commands each and every day, filling himself with the Word of God to manifest his Father’s character to mankind. And then, when his time was complete, he allowed sinners with evil intent to beat and kill him. Our few hours spent remembering him in the meeting each week pale by comparison, do they not?
Our response to God
After all that the LORD God Almighty and Jesus Christ have done for us, what is it that’s expected of us in return? Jesus summarized the answer perfectly when asked by a scribe what the greatest commandment from God was. “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these’ ” (Mark 12:29-31). Let’s break this message into pieces to examine its components.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength
It is impossible to love God if you do not first know Him. The Bible was provided, not only as a guide for mankind, to learn how we ought to develop, but also to demonstrate God’s character to us. One of our basic duties as believers is to learn His ways and mold our character.
We know that we must study God’s Word to learn the commandments in order to keep them. In 1 John 2, we read that we show our love for God by keeping His commandments. We do not have the option of worshiping God in whatever way suits us — He requires that we conform to His ways. Take the example of David’s company retrieving the Ark of the Covenant. Uzzah died because he did not obey God’s commandments concerning the holy things of God. Had David written the Law out, as kings were instructed to do, he would have known how to transport the Ark of Covenant without arousing God’s anger (see Deut. 17:18,19).
Another aspect of loving the Lord God is obeying His requirements for repentance. “In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:30,31). Even more direct are Paul’s words telling us that if we understand the goodness of God, it leads us to repentance (Rom. 2:3-5).
Knowledge of God and repentance lead us directly to baptism. It is the next act required as a response to God’s love and mercy. “This water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also — not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 3:21). It is in our repentance from our sins, recognition of the salvation offered through Jesus, and compliance of this command that we are saved.
Love your neighbor as yourself
This brings us to the second portion of the greatest command. We are to foster a true love for our brothers and sisters. The love that we need to develop within the ecclesia is possibly the most difficult to understand and cultivate. Because we have the love of the Father and the Son, we should love one another. John, ever the spiritual-minded apostle, summarizes this love for each other: “Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble” (1 John 2:9,10).
Occasions for stumbling come in many forms within ecclesial life. Improper conduct or dress, lack of respect, and poor manners all account for occasions to put stumbling blocks in the way of each other. As society continues to decline throughout the globe (a clear indication that the return of our Lord is imminent and essential), moral behavior and kindness and respect towards others seem old-fashioned and out of place. We must remember that these are not outdated concepts simply because they are on the decline in the world. They are simply out of fashion in a world where decency and restraint are scoffed at, and where young people are encouraged to do whatever feels good.
God wants us to measure our walk before Him in such a way that we consider how our actions might affect our brothers and sisters. As we know from the famous “love” chapter to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 13), without love our words are noisy gongs, our otherwise good deeds are useless, and we are nothing. Continuing on, we see that love rejoices in truth, is kind, patient, and not arrogant. This love must be developed, becoming the twine that binds us together.
Paul tells us, in Romans 13, that love is the fulfillment of the Law. We are exhorted to awaken, to put aside the deeds of the night and behave properly as in the day, because the hour of our salvation draws near. Chapter 14 and the beginning of chapter 15 elaborate the concept of loving our neighbor. Those who judge their brother are chastised, as well as those who regard their brother with contempt, as each has put a stumbling block in the other’s way. Paul concludes his section on showing brotherly love by explaining that — although there is nothing particularly sinful in either celebrating certain days or not, or in eating certain foods or not — if partaking causes a brother or sister to stumble, we have committed a wrong. This is indeed the higher principle, and we must examine ourselves to discern whether we are guilty of this. Do we cling to our stance, stubbornly proclaiming that we are correct and there is no Scriptural backing for the opposition’s view? Would it not be better to hold our brother or sister in higher esteem than ourselves, concede the point (regardless of right or wrong), in a purposeful act of obedience to God — loving our neighbor as ourselves?
“This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother” (1 John 3:10).
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One