John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish… I. LOVE IN ITS GRANDEST SOURCE. 1. God can love and does love. We must beware of making God only an infinite man; yet love in Him must be the same in kind as love in us. 2. Love is more than a Divine attribute. It is as light of which all the attributes are colours. 3. How near this brings Him to our hearts. We admire other qualities; we only love the loving. 4. The Scripture represents everywhere this love as the fountain of redemption. II. LOVE IN ITS PUREST FORM. It had nothing to attract it and everything to repel it. 1. The world was perishing; it was therefore not complacent, but compassionating love. It is one thing to help the happy and prosperous and another to succour the needy and miserable. 2. The world was guilty. It is harder to love those who add unworthiness to distress. Moral excellence may attract compassion to the wretched, but moral vileness disgusts. But "God commendeth His love," etc. 3. The world was at enmity with God. That love is purest which withstands provocations and does good to the injurious. "When we were enemies we were reconciled," etc. 4. The world's misery and peril were caused by itself. It is always a sore strain on mercy when solicited for the wilful. How natural the reply: "It serves you right"! God says, "Thou hast destroyed thyself, but in Me is thy help." III. Love IN ITS GREATEST STRENGTH That is a poor philanthropy which can pity without helping: but "the philanthropy of God appeared" in action. Love is as deeds, not words, desires, or feelings. 1. The love of God was practical in the most costly way. The test of love is sacrifice; the criterion of its strength is the measure of the sacrifice. The Cross was the self-denial of God. 2. Of all sacrifices the chief are those of persons. The highest sphere of value is in persons, not things, although the latter may be very precious. 3. God sacrificed the highest of all persons. IV. Love IN ITS LOFTIEST PURPOSE. No purpose could be greater. We know the worth of life. "All that a man hath will he give for his life." It is the condition of all else that is prized. Salvation is life, not in figure, but in fact. There is a life of the flesh, of the soul, and of the spirit. This life in all its perfection is the end of God. Beginning in the finest portion of our nature it will spread and strengthen until it possesses the whole of it. Man redeemed and renewed is to live to the utmost of his capacity of life. This life is "everlasting." Sin brought death and separated from the tree of life: Christ restored access to it. V. LOVE IN ITS WIDEST SPHERE. The "world" is not here used in a restrictive sense. It would be difficult to believe, did not facts prove it, that any could be so blinded as to make "the world" signify the Church. For the fact is, whenever the "world" is applied to a portion of mankind it always means the wicked. Wherever there is a man in the way to perish, there is the world God loved. There is nothing in the love or sacrifice of the Father and the Son to prevent the whole world being saved. God loved without limit of nation or condition. Conclusion: 1. You have here a pattern and spring of love. "Be imitators of God as dear children." "If God loved us," etc. 2. What a gospel — good news — is here! God loves you now in spite of all your sins and follies. The only title to love is to be "perishing"; the only condition of its blessings is to "believe." 3. The subject casts a shadow by its very brightness on your unbelief, state, prospects. (A. J. Morris.) Parallel Verses KJV: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. |
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