Four Consequences of Divine Love
(Read 1 John 4:7-19.)
HERE are many exceedingly beautiful points in this passage; but I will only touch on four of them. There is little of ourselves here; all is about God,— what He is, and what He does.
Naturally, neither you nor I have any confidence in God, It was want of confidence in God that led Eve to parley with Satan. The moment there is any parley with the devil, he gets bolder. All the family of Eve have got their father's and mother's likeness stamped in their hearts,—want of confidence in God. And that is where the gospel comes in. What does it open up to us? I know a poet has written of "Paradise Regained,” but it is false. The gospel opens up to us God's paradise, not man's. He displays what He is in Himself, in the life and ways of His Son. What begets confidence in our hearts is this, — the discovery of what is in God's heart.
In this epistle, God does not say, He loves us; He proves it. You may slight the love of God, you may scorn it, you may trample it underfoot, but you can't deny it; God is love!
Whence comes love? from the heart of man No from the heart of God. Is there any true genuine love in your heart to any of God's people? It comes from God. If there be love in your heart to any of God's people, it will come out. “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren" (chap. 3:14). Not because we say we are converted, but because we love. We cannot know God, and be born of Him, without these blessed characteristics coming out in us. Can you say you love? Then I will tell you something better,—you are a child of the Father. Is there anything better in this world than to know God? He is revealed in the person and life of His Son. “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." “He that loveth not, knoweth not God." You cannot get in contact with Him without loving Him. It is the first mark of a converted soul.
What an awful thing not to know God! Do you know Him? Don't say what you know about Him; what you have learned in the Sunday school. You may teach a parrot to say things. God has come near to you in the person of His Son. He comes near to you this hour by this paper in your hands; but there is something in your heart that turns away from Him. "He that loved?, not, knoweth, not God.”
Look how the apostle, in this passage, unfolds four things. In the ninth verse, there is the love of God manifested in sending His Son that we might live through Him. You cannot say God does not love you; you dare not say it. You ask, Why? I answer, Because you are part of the world.