God Is Love

John said in 1 John 4:7-16, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God…”—and here’s our subject—“…for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation…”—or “the atoning sacrifice”—“…for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.”

Before we break down these verses, I want to look at a few. In verse 7, there is the statement, “Love is of God”; in verse 8, we find the statement, “God is love”; in verse 11, we read, “If God so loved us…”; and in verse 16, we find the statement again, “God is love.” Of all the attributes of God, the one that thrills our hearts, the one that brings us such great joy, peace and comfort in a time of adversity is to know that God loves me.

A story is told of the Swiss theologian, Karl Barth, who died in 1968. He used to lecture at U.S. seminaries. After one of his theological lectures at a college, one of the students asked him, “Dr. Barth, in all of your years of studying and teaching theology, what is the greatest thought that has ever gone through your mind?”

That’s quite a question. But without any hesitation, Dr. Barth answered, “That ‘Jesus loves me! This I know, for the Bible tells me so.’”

So you take all the theology, all the doctrines of the Bible, and they can be summarized in that one, simple statement: “God is love.” “Jesus loves me! This I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

A.W. Tozer said in his book, Knowledge of the Holy, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” I like that statement. Whatever you think about God, is of vital importance. He went on to say, “I believe there is scarcely an error in doctrine, or failure in applying Christian ethics, that cannot be traced finally to an imperfect and ignoble thought about God.”

So it’s very important that we think rightly about God. And if there’s anything the devil doesn’t want, it’s that he doesn’t want you to know and believe that God loves you. He does all he can to distort that doctrine, that truth of the love of God. And many times our experiences in life may say that God is not loving, and we don’t understand Him. But the rock of Scripture, the revelation of God in His Word, says that “God is love.”

And when it comes to the nature of God, the attributes of God, the doctrines of God, the only way we can know God, and know about God, is that He has chosen to reveal Himself. And the chief means by which God has revealed Himself is in the Bible, in His Word. He has also revealed Himself in creation, in our conscience, in His law and through other means. But the greatest revelation of God is through His Word, which gives us the record of the Living Word, Jesus Christ, who is God incarnate, the manifestation of God on earth.

So we need to be clear when we come to the doctrine of the love of God. It will change, transform and bless our lives. When we can say, with the Apostle John in verse 16, “We have known and believed the love that God has for us,” or that “God is love,” I promise that it will transform your life when you realize that nothing can come into your life except what is filtered through the love of God. Whatever God allows is loving, for His purpose, for your good and for His glory.

There are three truths about the love of God that I want you to see in this passage. The first truth is in verses 7-8. It is the proclamation that “God is love.” So it is made clear that the Bible teaches us—as God reveals Himself to us—that God is love. John says, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God…”—Why? Here’s the rationale—“…for God is love.” And again, verse 16 says, “God is love.” It starts in verse 7, where it says, “Beloved, let us love one another.”

This is John’s appeal. And this is really the whole context of this passage. He wants them to love one another, because love is the birthmark of a true Christian. He’s writing to oppose false teachers, and he wants them to know that the true mark of a believer is agape love. Jesus said, “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Then John gives us two reasons why we should love one another, in verses 7-8. “For love is of God,” which means that God is the source of love; and “God is love.” And then in verse 16, John repeats that statement by saying, “God is love.”

The Bible declares three facts about God’s essential essence or nature. Number one, in John 4:24, is that “God is Spirit.” When Jesus was meeting with the woman at Sychar at Jacob’s well, he told the Samaritan woman, “The hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain [Mount Gerizim], nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father….God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” So God is non-material; God is a spirit.

The second thing the Bible says about God’s nature, in 1 John 1:5, is that “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.” So God is not only love, but He is light or holy. The two are important to keep in balance. His light speaks of His holiness and purity.

And to say that “God is love” means that love is an essential, intrinsic part of God’s very nature. God cannot think, feel or act in any way but in love.

This is a bedrock foundation for your life. The devil wants you to doubt and question the love of God. But what you need to realize is that “God is love.” No matter what your senses tell you, no matter what your circumstances might be, you need to rest your life solidly on this foundation: “God is love.”

People sometimes say, “Well, how can a God of love send someone to hell?” He doesn’t send anyone to hell. You go to hell because you reject Him. You choose; God is not going to force you to go to heaven apart from your will. If you don’t want to go to heaven, you don’t have to go to heaven. But think about the consequences of that. Because God loves you, He give you free will, the freedom to choose where you are going to spend eternity. If you don’t like God, and you don’t want to spend eternity in heaven, you don’t have to.

So God loves us, but God’s love is a holy love. He hates and judges sin and will punish the wicked. God is also light, or holy, and He is love. So God’s love and justice are balanced together.

God, as revealed in the Bible, is not a God who is indifferent to moral distinction, but He is a God who loves righteousness and hates iniquity. I say that because in our culture today, it is so popular to say that “God is love,” and He loves everybody just the way they are. God loves all mankind, including sinners. That is obvious because He loves us, and we’re all sinners. Yet God loves the sinner but hates the sin. God hates unrighteousness and wants us to be forgiven and have a relationship with Him.

So God’s love is God acting benevolently toward us and providing for us. He sent His Son to die on the Cross for us so that our sins can be forgiven and we can be reconciled back to God in a covenant, love relationship with Him. That’s what Christianity is: it’s a love relationship with God. God loves me and I respond by believing in Him and loving Him in return.

The word “love,” as it’s used for God, is the Greek word “agape.” It’s not “eros,” an erotic, sensual, selfish love. It’s not “phileo,” a brotherly love. It’s not “storge,” a family love. It is “agape” love. “Agape” was coined by Christianity to describe the sacrificial, self-denying, giving love of God. It is used in John 3:16, which says, “For God so loved the world…”—this Christ-rejecting, sinful world—“…that He gave…”—love is a giving thing—“…His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” So in His love, God provided a sacrifice for man’s sins.

I want to give you five aspects of God’s love. I could give you many more, and I feel like a little child trying to scoop up the whole ocean in a little bucket. We can’t comprehend or understand the love of God; it’s beyond comprehension.

First, God’s love is great. Ephesians 2:4 says, “…but God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us….” So even though we were dead in our trespasses and sins, even though we were disobedient and depraved, even though we were running from God, He took the initiative—God is always the initiator—and loved us. How marvelous.

Second, God’s love is gracious. In Deuteronomy 7:7-8, God speaks to Israel in saying, “The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the Lord loves you.” In this passage, God is speaking of the nation of Israel. And He makes it clear that His choice of them is based on His love for them and not on their performance or who or what they were.

I want you to understand that God loves you, but it’s not because of who you are. You may say, “Well, I know God loves me; I’m loveable. I’m awesome.” There was a bumper sticker people used to put on their car that said, “To know me is to love me.” Why someone would put that on their car, I have no idea. But every time I saw that, I thought, No way! Because the more you know somebody, the harder it is to love them. I used to think you were pretty awesome, but now that I know you---ah, I don’t know.

Do you know that God knew you before you were born, and He chose you by His grace? That’s the idea that God “set His love on you.” God loves everybody, but He chose some people particularly, the nation of Israel. And if you’re an elect child of God, you can rejoice in God’s love that He set on you.

But He did not choose you because you’re smart, you’re good looking, you’re charismatic, you’re intelligent or you’re wonderful. The Bible says, “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” He saves us by His grace. And just like He chose Israel, though they were fewer in number than other nations, God also chose us by His grace, Ephesians 2:8. His love is manifested in grace.

Thirdly, God’s love is immutable. What that means is that it doesn’t change. Have you ever heard someone say that they love you, but now they hate you? What happened to their love? It changed. God’s love is not like that. God will never stop loving you. In James 1:17, he says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” That means that God doesn’t change. God is immutable.

So you can’t do anything to make God love your more, and you can’t do anything that makes God love you less. Maybe your said, “If I go to church, maybe God will love me more.” No; He already loves you perfectly. Or maybe you said, “I didn’t go to church; God doesn’t love me.” God’s love is not influenced by our actions or thoughts. So nothing you can do will make God love you more, and nothing you can do will make God love you less; God’s love is perfect, it’s immutable.

In John 13:1, when Jesus gathered with His disciples in the upper room, it says, “Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end” or “to the uttermost.” So God’s love is unending and unchanging.

Fourthly, God’s love is everlasting. I like that. In Jeremiah 31:3, it says, “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, with lovingkindness I have drawn you.” So God’s love is everlasting; it has no end. How marvelous.

And fifthly and lastly, God’s love is infinite. The word “infinite” means that it is impossible to measure. Isaac Watts wrote in his famous hymn, The Love of God:

“Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade.
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretch from sky to sky.

O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure—
The saints’ and angels’ song.”

That is God’s marvelous love. God has always been love, and God will always be love. “God is love.” What a marvelous truth that is.

The second thing I want you to see in our text is the proof of God’s love, verses 9-10. So God’s love is proclaimed, in verses 7-8 and 16, and now God’s love is demonstrated or manifested or proven in verses 9-10. John says, “In this the love of God…”—our theme—“…was manifested…”—there’s our word—“…toward us…”—catch that phrase—“…that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.” So we have the love of God—as far as His nature is concerned—we have the love of God “toward us” in sending His Son to die on the Cross, we have the love of God in us and we have the love of God flowing through us. What a marvelous truth that is.

Continuing, He “sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent…”—notice that word—“…His Son to be the propitiation…”—or “the atoning sacrifice”—“…for our sins.

We need to ask ourselves, “Is there any proof or concrete evidence that ‘God is love’?” The answer is “Yes”; look at verse 9. “In this the love of God was manifested…”—this is the evidence, the demonstration—“…toward us…”—how?—“…that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world.” Notice who did it: God did. So God, who is love, the source of love in essence and was motivated by love out of our need, sent “His only begotten Son.”

The words “only begotten” means “only unique.” It speaks of Jesus’ deity. When we say that Jesus is unique, it means that He is one of a kind; there is no equal. Jesus is the “begotten” or unique Son of God. How marvelous that is.

So God took the initiative and Jesus was sent. The word “sent” means that Jesus preexisted His conception in the womb of the Virgin Mary at his birth in Bethlehem. And why is Jesus the “only begotten Son” of God? He is the Second Person of the Godhead; there is no other. He was conceived in the womb of a virgin. There was no one before Him, and there will never be another one born of a virgin. He is the holy Son of God. Jesus was born of a virgin and He was unique, because He lived a sinless life.

Now I’ve met people who think they’re sinless, but they’re not. The Bible says, “There is none righteous; no, not one….All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Jesus was actually the sinless Son of God, and then He became the substitutionary sacrifice for our sins. He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. Now He sits at “the right hand of God,” which is the place of authority, and “who also makes intercession for us,” as His people.

And God not only “sent His only begotten Son,” but He sent Him “to be the propitiation for our sins,” verse 10. This is a reference to the sacrificial death of Jesus on the Cross. The word “propitiation” means that when Jesus died on the Cross, He not only died for sinners—to take away their sins—but He also died to satisfy God the Father. God the Father’s righteous law had been broken or violated, and a penalty for doing that needed to be paid. So when Jesus died on the Cross, He died to satisfy or propitiate the holy, righteous God, who sent His Son to satisfy the penalty demanded by the law that was broken.

It would be like me speeding down Scott Road in my car. I’m late for church, going very fast and a cop pulls me over. He says, “Do you realize you’re going 100 miles an hour?”

“Yes, officer. I’m late for church and I’m preaching today.”

“Well, that doesn’t matter. Here’s a big ticket.” So I get a $1,000 ticket for speeding on Scott Road.

I go to the courthouse and stand before the judge. I’m pronounced guilty, but it turns out that the judge’s son is in the courtroom, and he knows me and likes me. He gets up, goes up to the bench and says, “Dad, I happen to know John Miller, and he’s pretty cool. So I want to pay his fine.” He takes out his wallet and pays my $1,000 fine. The judge brings down the gavel and stamps “Paid in full” on the ticket. It means I’m forgiven and can go free. I walk out smiling with my good friend, Jesus Christ. His Father is the judge. Jesus pleaded for me and died for me on the Cross.

So “propitiation” means that Jesus satisfied the penalty. When Jesus died, he said, “It is finished” or “Paid in full,” so we can be reconciled or brought back to God. We’ve been “justified,” which means “to be declared righteous” by God, so we can be adopted and become the children of God in His family.

The Cross is not only a work but it’s a word. This is one of my favorite thoughts. Ancient theologians called it “the theater of the Cross.” The work of the Cross is that Jesus died for our sins. The word of the Cross is a word that He speaks. When you look at the Cross, you can see all those moral attributes of God manifested. You can see the love of God—He gave His life; the holiness of God—He died to pay for our sins, because the law is righteous and must be paid for; the justice of God—He took my penalty and I’m set free; and the grace of God on the Cross of Jesus Christ—He gives me His righteousness, of which I’m undeserved and unmerited, but it’s imputed to me, so I stand justified before a holy God.
So the attributes of God are manifest in the theater of the Cross. When we look at the Cross, we can see and know that God loves me, He is holy, He is just, He is merciful, He is righteous, He is gracious and He is kind. All these are demonstrated for us at the Cross.

J. I. Packer, in his excellent book, Knowing God, said, “God’s love is an exercise of His goodness toward sinners. He gave His Son to be their Savior, to bring them to know and enjoy Him in a covenant relationship.” I like that. So God’s love motivates Him to send His Son. Jesus came out of love, as well, to die for us in our place.

John Stott said, “No greater gift of God is conceivable, because no greater gift was possible.” It was God’s “only begotten Son.”

This is seen in Luke 15 in three parables. They are the parables of the lost sheep, of the lost coin and of the lost son, or the prodigal son. These parables were spoken by Jesus, because sinners came to Him and He met with and spoke with them. This upset the religious community, who said about Jesus, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.”

So Jesus said in the parable of the lost sheep, “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lay it on his shoulders, rejoicing.” He wasn’t bummed out; he rejoiced.

If it were me, since I’m not the Good Shepherd, if you get lost, “Good riddance! I’ve got 99 left. I’m not going anywhere. I might break my neck falling off a cliff. You stupid sheep! You should have stayed in the fold!”

But not God, not God’s love. He goes out looking and seeking. Then He finds the lost sheep, and He rejoices and is glad. He comes back saying, “I have found my sheep which was lost!”

Then there is the parable about a woman who had 10 silver coins, but she lost one. They were most likely her wedding dowry. So if she loses these coins, she’s in big trouble. She swept the house and found the one lost coin. When she found it, “She calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost!”

When you lose something, you’re glad when you find it. Whenever I lose my keys, my wife says, “Did you pray about finding them?”

And I’m so mad that I can’t find them that I can’t pray. So I say, “No, I haven’t prayed!”

She says, “Well, I always pray and I find them.”

So I said, “Well, you pray!”

She said, “Lord, just help John find his keys.” Every time she does that, I find them. It’s just insane!
And what do you do when you find the thing that was lost? You rejoice! It’s wonderful. This is where the parable says, “There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

So you see that these parables were given because sinners were coming to Jesus, and He heard them and gladly forgave them. There is joy in finding that which is lost.

Then Jesus tells the parable of the prodigal son or the lost son. The son said, “Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.” His father gave him his portion, and the son went “to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal…”—or “riotous” or “wasteful”—“…living.” The son had to feed the pigs, and “No one gave him anything.”

“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!’ I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.’” So he brushed himself off and started for home.

Then his father was obviously looking for his son down the road. “But when he was a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.” If that isn’t the love of God, I don’t know what is. No dignified man in that culture would run, but he girded up his skirt, tied up his belt and took off running. When he got to his son, the father said to his servants, “Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”

So they set out a party to celebrate, and everyone was at the party except the older brother. He was outside grumbling and complaining. “But he was angry and would not go in” to the party. The father had to go out and plead with his older son. The son said to his father, “These many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends.” Then the father said to his older son, “It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.”

This older brother was acting like the Pharisees and the Scribes. He was grumbling at Jesus, because He received sinners.

All three of these parables are about the Father’s love. The third one wasn’t about the prodigal son; it’s the parable of the father of the prodigal. It’s about his reckless and lavish love, his forgiveness, his grace, his mercy on his repentant son. What a picture that is of the great love of God.

God’s love seeks and God’s love saves, and He does it for two reasons. He does it for His glory and for His gladness. That struck me as never before. God saves you because He loves you and it makes Him glad. God rejoices over you with singing. He celebrates. You’re saved not only for God’s glory but also for God’s gladness. Verse 10, which says, “There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents,” is the joy of God the Father. God the Father rejoices over sinners who repent, because He loves you. He seeks you out and wants to draw you back to His side in a loving relationship. That’s what Christianity is. How marvelous that is!

So the Cross is the concrete manifestation of God’s love.

The third point I want to make is that not only is God’s love proclaimed and proven; God’s love has a purpose, verses 11-16. There are three purposes for God’s love. Number one, it is to teach us to love one another. Not only does God want to communicate to us His holiness, a communicable attribute of God—“Be holy, for I am holy”—but God also wants us to be loving. If we’re children of God and God is love, then we have to love one another.

Verses 11-12 say, “Beloved, if God so loved us…”—and He does—“…we also ought…”—so this is now a duty—“…to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected…”—or 
“manifested”—“…in us.” People can’t see God, because God is spirit, but if we are like God in our love, they will see God in our lives.

Then verse 13 says, “By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.”  I like that. So God gave to us His Son, which manifests His love, and God has given to us His Spirit, and the love of God is “poured out in our hearts.”

Verse 11 says, “Love one another.” God’s gift of His son demonstrates and assures us of His love, but it also lays upon us an obligation to love one another. “We also ought” means that this is an obligation. If we love each other, then God’s love is manifested in us.

Verse 12 says that if we love one another, it proves that God dwells in us. It proves that His love is perfected in us.

And my favorite is verse 13: “He has given us of His Spirit.” The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. And He is not only the Spirit of holiness, but He is the Spirit of love. Romans 5:5 says, “The love of God has been poured out…”—or lavishly “shed abroad”—“…in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” Some translations say, “The love of God has flooded our hearts.” This is my favorite verse in prepping for this sermon.

This is the Christian life: the Spirit of God comes to regenerate you, comes to indwell you and comes to flood your heart and life, your innermost being, with the love of God. So the Holy Spirit pours into our hearts the knowledge of God’s love for us. What a marvelous experience that is.

Many times we look at this verse, Romans 5:5, and we just think of it as having love for other people. And that’s true. But I think the best way to interpret that God’s love “has been poured out in our hearts” is that we have a personal, powerful experience of knowing and being assured that God loves me. The Christian life is walking with God in a love relationship and growing in the knowledge that He loves me by His flooding my heart with His love.
The concept of being “poured in our hearts” would be used of a lowland area where there was a flood. And the flood was so massive that it turned into a lake, a permanent body of water. So picture a valley that floods, and the flood is so wide spread that it turns into a permanent lake.

That’s your heart. Your heart is empty, God floods it with His love and now it’s a permanent “lake” or “reservoir.” That is the love of God that is poured into our hearts. And it is all done by His Spirit, as we see in verse 13. “He has given us of His Spirit.”

Galatians 5:22 says, “The fruit of the Spirit is love.” So the number one reason for God’s love is to teach us to love one another.

Number two, in verses 14-15, the purpose of God’s love was to send the Savior. “And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.” So again John comes back to the theme that God’s love sent God’s Son to be the Savior of the world.

Number three, God also sent His love to bring us assurance, verse 16. “And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.” So we can have assurance of the fact that God loves us; of God’s love to us in sending His Son, of God’s love in us giving us His Spirit and God’s love through us in Christ’s life lived out through us in our hearts and in our lives.

In summary, Romans 8:31 says, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” That’s another way of saying, “If God loves us, who can be against us?” or “If God loves me, who can be against me?”

Then verse 32 says, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” If God loves me and is for me—and “Who can be against me?”—if God gave His own Son to die for me, why wouldn’t everything He does for me have my good in mind? He’s going to “freely give us all things.”

Continuing in verses 33-37, “Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.” Christ is not condemning you; He loves you. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”  

So if you want to live as a conqueror in this world, you need to be resting and assured of the love of God.

Then verse 38 says, “For I am persuaded…”—this is a settled conviction, a knowledge or assurance—“…that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Amen.
Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is found in Christ Jesus. That’s marvelous.

Now if I know that God loves me, and I believe that God loves me—verse 16 of our text—there are four questions that need to be asked. Number one, “Why do I ever grumble and show discontent and resentment at the circumstances in which God has placed me?”

Why are you complaining? God loves you. You say, “I know God loves me, but I need a better house.” “I know God loves me, but I wish He would fix my husband.” If you really know and you really believe that God loves you, why are you complaining? Why are you so upset?

My second question is, “If you know that God loves you and you really believe it, why are you distrustful and fearful and depressed?”

The third question is, “If you know that God loves you, why do you ever allow yourself to grow cold and half-hearted in the service of God, who loves you so much?”

And the fourth question is, “If you know that God loves you, you are assured of His love and believe in His love, why do you ever allow your loyalties to be divided, so that God does not have all your heart?”