Compelling Love

God created us to love us, and gives each person the capacity to love Him back.  This is implied in Genesis 1:27, “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”  The Bible is God’s love letter to every person who will believe His word and come to Him.  He has taken the initiative in this love relationship, as declared in

1 John 4:19, “We love Him because He first loved us.”  The perfecting of this love relationship is the central theme of the New Testament.

Many of the Psalms reveal facets of the deep love relationship God desires to have with us, exhorting people to worship, praise and thank God for His goodness, and to give glory to His name.  Psalms like those below depict the wonders of an ever deepening walk with the Creator and Lover of our souls.

Psalm 29 (NKJV)
A Psalm of David
¹ Give unto the Lord, O you mighty ones,
Give unto the Lord glory and strength.
² Give unto the Lord the glory due to His name;
Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

Psalm 91 (NKJV)
Safety of Abiding in the Presence of God
¹ He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
² I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress;
My God, in Him I will trust.”

¹⁴ “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him;
I will set him on high, because he has known My name.
¹⁵ He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will deliver him and honor him.
¹⁶ With long life I will satisfy him,
And show him My salvation.”

Psalm 107 (NKJV)
⁸ Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness,
And for His wonderful works to the children of men!
⁹ For He satisfies the longing soul,
And fills the hungry soul with goodness.

The Song of Solomon beautifully depicts a committed love relationship between a husband and wife, and also gives a picture of the kind of mutual self-giving God desires for each of us to have with Him.  The Shulamite woman declares in Song of Solomon 6:3,  “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine”.  This description of a deep sharing of lives has a spiritual parallel in Jesus’ prayer for his followers in John 17:9-10, “I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them.”

In the conclusion of this prayer, Jesus prayed that his followers would know the love that He shares eternally with the Father, that we would be with Him where He is, and that we would see His glory.

John 17 (NKJV)
Jesus Prays for All Believers
²⁰ “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; ²¹ that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. ²² And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: ²³ I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.

²⁴ “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. ²⁵ O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. ²⁶ And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it,that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

John 1 is a helpful foundation for understanding Jesus’ prayer in John 17. 

John 1 (NKJV)
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. ⁴ In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

¹⁴ And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

God sent his Son into the world so that we can receive eternal life.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”  (John 3:16)

Jesus declares in John 8:12, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”  Following Him, we enter into a walk with God that grows stronger and deeper day by day, as described in 1 John 4:

1 John 4 (NKJV)
Knowing God Through Love
⁷ Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸ He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. ⁹ 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. ¹⁰ In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. ¹¹ Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

Seeing God Through Love
¹² 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. ¹³ By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. ¹⁴ And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. ¹⁵ Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 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.

David Krause, dhkrause@neteze.com, https://compellinglove.net/, 9/28/2019

Photo credits:
(1) https://www.fggam.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/1-John-4-19-We-love-God-because-He-1st-loved-us-Hope-in-Today-Ministries-Inc..jpg
(2) https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Psalms-29-2_Inspirational_Image/
(3) https://www.stalkram.net/tag/joyfulverse
(4) https://twitter.com/scripturetclub/status/1006545158408507392
(5) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlQ6RMwKHCc