Because He First Loved Us
We are drawn to the Lord because he first loved us. This is why we came to Jesus to be saved.
1 Jn 4:10, “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins”.
Jn 3:16 “For God so loved that world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”.
Rom 5:8 “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”.
And once we were saved, His love for us affected:
Our love for him. 1 Jn 4:19 “We love him, because he first loved us”.
When I grew up in the Roman Catholic Church, I believed God to be only a condemning God who was waiting to “get” me every time I did something wrong. I was fearful of his judgment.
But 1 Jn 4:18 “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth our fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love”.
I didn’t have the healthy fear of God that we are supposed to have. I had this tormenting fear. But after getting saved, I learned that nothing could separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus, Rom 8:38-39. And that drew me into a deep loving relationship with him.
Our love for the brethren. 1 Jn 4:11 “Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another”. 1 Jn 4:21 “And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also”.
Keeping ourselves in the love of God, Jude 21, is like keeping ourselves under the flowing spray of our shower. And the love of God flowing into us is then shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, Rom 5:5, to God’s other children and to our spouses, Eph 5:25.
Our love for the world. 1 Jn 2:15-16 “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world”.
Our love for the world diminishes as our love for God grows. Yet, the world allures us with it’s shiny presentations. “But the world passeth away, and the lust thereof”, 1 Jn 2:17. Jesus, on the other hand, draws us to his eternal light. There’s a big difference.
Sadly, Demas forsook Paul “having loved this present world”, 2 Tim 4:10. Evidently, Demas’s love for God waned and his love for the world waxed stronger until he departed from Paul. Demas reminds us of worldly churches that have departed from Bible believing Christianity. They may say they became worldly in order to win more souls. But I believe they become more worldly because they, like Demas, love the world.
Our love for giving. There is one thing that actually increases God’s love for us. It’s giving. 2 Cor 9:7 “for God loveth a cheerful giver”. Giving like this proves the sincerity of our love for God, 2 Cor 8:8.
I believe cheerful giving draws us closer to God and God closer to us because it demonstrates the same kind of unselfish, giving love God has for us. We love him, because he first loved us.