Topical Bible: Love to Man: The Love of God is a Motive To

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The concept of love in the Christian faith is deeply rooted in the understanding of God's love for humanity. This divine love serves as a powerful motive for believers to express love towards others. The Bible provides numerous insights into how the love of God compels and inspires Christians to act in love towards their fellow man.

1. Imitating Christ's Love: The love of God, as demonstrated through Jesus Christ, is the ultimate example for believers. In Ephesians 5:1-2 , Paul exhorts, "Be imitators of God, therefore, as beloved children, and walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant sacrificial offering to God." The sacrificial nature of Christ's love is a model for Christians to emulate in their relationships with others.

2. Fulfilling the Law: The love of God motivates believers to fulfill the law through love. Romans 13:8-10 states, "Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. The commandments... are summed up in this one command: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no wrong to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law." God's love, therefore, is a driving force for living in accordance with His commandments.

3. Demonstrating God's Nature: God's love is intrinsic to His nature, and believers are called to reflect this nature in their interactions with others. 1 John 4:7-8 encourages, "Beloved, 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." The love of God is a motive for believers to manifest His character in the world.

4. Promoting Unity and Peace: The love of God fosters unity and peace among believers. Colossians 3:14 instructs, "And over all these virtues put on love, which is the bond of perfect unity." The divine love that believers experience is a catalyst for creating harmonious relationships within the body of Christ and beyond.

5. Encouraging Sacrificial Service: God's love inspires believers to serve others selflessly. In 1 John 3:16-18 , it is written, "By this we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Little children, let us love not in word and speech, but in action and truth." The sacrificial love of God motivates Christians to act in tangible ways to meet the needs of others.

6. Encouraging Forgiveness: The love of God is a powerful motive for forgiveness. Ephesians 4:32 advises, "Be kind and tenderhearted to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ God forgave you." The forgiveness believers receive from God through Christ compels them to extend the same grace to others.

7. Spreading the Gospel: The love of God motivates believers to share the message of salvation with others. 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 declares, "For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that One died for all, therefore all died. And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died for them and was raised again." The transformative love of God drives Christians to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ to the world.

In summary, the love of God is a profound and compelling motive for believers to love others. It influences every aspect of Christian life, from imitating Christ and fulfilling the law to promoting unity, serving sacrificially, forgiving, and spreading the Gospel. The divine love that believers experience is not only a gift but also a call to action, urging them to reflect God's love in their interactions with humanity.

Torrey's Topical Textbook

John 13:34
A new commandment I give to you, That you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
Torrey's Topical Textbook

1 John 4:11
Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
Torrey's Topical Textbook

Library

Love is the End of all the Commandments, and God Himself is Love.
... of which is, "It is good for a man not to touch a woman," [1328] are rightly carried
out only when the motive principle of action is the love of God, and the ...
/.../augustine/the enchiridion/chapter 121 love is the end.htm

Love, the Motive Power for Service.
... But no man can be a true worker for God, and a successful winner of souls ... eyes of
the world and have crowds flocking to hear him, but if love to God and to ...
/.../moody/to the work to the work/chapter ii love the motive.htm

What Proves God's Love
... reach of human affection might be that a man would die ... But God sends His Son, and
comes Himself in His Son ... That death reveals a love which is its own origin and ...
/.../maclaren/romans corinthians to ii corinthians chap v/what proves gods love.htm

Love and Forgiveness
... 'God is love': therefore beneath all ... than all thoughts of a compassion that springs
from the feeling of human distress and the sight of man's misery"lies ...
/.../maclaren/expositions of holy scripture e/love and forgiveness.htm

God's Imitators
... The only flame that kindles love in a man's heart, whether it be to God or to man,
is the recognition that he himself stands in the full sunshine of ...
/.../maclaren/expositions of holy scripture ephesians peter/gods imitators.htm

How we are to Reduce all the Exercise of the virtues, and all Our ...
... and does not escape being an ambitious man; for he ... consequently the sovereign rank
to that of pleasing God. ... actions, which is that of heavenly love, has this ...
/.../francis/treatise on the love of god/chapter xiii how we are.htm

God's Testimony Concerning Man
... God's testimony then concerning man is, that he does not love God with
all his heart; nay, that he does not love him at all. ...
/.../bonar/gods way of peace/chapter i gods testimony concerning.htm

Wesley -- God's Love to Fallen Man
... before the world began; as to take upon Him "the form of a servant, being found
in fashion as a man"! ... If God so loved us, how ought we to love one another ...
/.../kleiser/the worlds great sermons volume 3/wesley gods love to.htm

God's Love to Fallen Man
... form of a servant, being found in fashion as a man; and then ... unto death, even the
death of the cross!" If God SO loved us, how ought we to love one another ...
/.../wesley/sermons on several occasions/sermon 59 gods love to.htm

A Dialogue with God
... answered man's question; for Christ is at once the way back to God, and the motive
which draws us to walk in it. He draws us back by the magnetism of His love ...
/.../maclaren/expositions of holy scripture a/a dialogue with god 3.htm