The love of God is probably the one attribute that everyone likes to read about. But God’s love is not exactly the same as ours. We love because others love us. God loves us even while we were sinners. God loved us even before we loved Him! And His love is for us is what makes us special and valuable. Martin Luther once said, “God does not love us because we are valuable, But we are valuable because He loves us.” So, the love of God is a precious attribute for all believers to rejoice in!
Let’s look at the attribute of love. First, 1 John 4:8 plainly says, “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” The love of God is not a sentimental love but is a love of passionate commitment to His creation. This love is WHO God is and all real love flows from Him. He is not only the supreme example of love; He is its source.
Second, the Bible tells us that God loves us first. Before we ever loved Him, He loved us. 1 John 4:19 says, “We love Him because He first loved us.” And 1 John 4:10 says, “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.” Paul says the same thing in Romans 5:8: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God is not only love – He loved us before we ever loved Him.
Third, God’s love is affectionate. You might be tempted to look at the love of God and assume that it is fairly stoic and official. But the Bible presents a very different picture of God’s love. Over and over again, the Bible says that God “rejoices over” us; that He “delights in you;” that He “exalts over us with great joy!” Luke 15 is one of the many examples of this when Jesus tells the parable of the Prodigal Son. When the father sees the son a far off, he runs to him and rejoices that the son which was lost has now been found. Earlier in Luke 15, Jesus told parables about a lost sheep and a lost coin. After both of those parables, Jesus says that there will be more “joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” God’s love is affectionate.
Fourth, God’s love is sacrificial. God’s love is not just affectionate, and it is not just sentimental words; it is sacrificial. John 3:16 is the classic verse on this: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son….” In John 15:13, Jesus told His disciples: “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” God’s love for us is sacrificial – He sent His only Son to die for us.
Fifth, God’s love is jealous. The attribute of God’s love is the most accepted and least controversial of all the attributes. Wrongly, many would make it the only attribute. But a truly loving God would also be a jealous and righteous God who would bring judgment. A truly loving husband would be jealous of his wife’s love for him. A truly loving judge would care that justice was given. In Exodus 20:5 He says to Israel that He was “a jealous God.” Deuteronomy 4:24 says, “For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.” Repeatedly, God speaks to Israel saying that He was a jealous husband. The jealous love of God is a total commitment to love us completely – so much, that He, like a good husband, will not allow any other lover to interfere with His relationship with us. God’s jealousy which is seen in many passages, comes from His jealous love for us.
Sixth, God’s love is disciplining. The sanctifying discipline of our heavenly Father is a product of divine love. In Hebrews 12:5-6, we read, “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” Far from being a proof of God’s anger or rejection of us, discipline is evidence of his fatherly love. Discipline, writes Philip Hughes, “is the mark not of a harsh and heartless father but of a father who is deeply and lovingly concerned for the well-being of his son.” We often tell our children, “we are disciplining you because we love you.” We explain that we care about the person they will become if we do not discipline properly. Parents who let their children do whatever they want are not really loving. God’s love is disciplining.
Finally, God’s love is everlasting. One of the most wonderful things about the love of God is that His love is eternal. Our love often wavers and changes but the love of God endures forever! In Jeremiah 33:1, God says, “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love.” He repeats this in many places, often translated as “his mercy endures forever.” In the NT, Paul tells us in Romans 8:38-39 that nothing can ever separate us from the love of God that we have found in Christ Jesus. God’s love is affectionate and sacrificial, but most of all it is eternal.
But, how does the love of God affect us? First, God’s love should motivate us to Serve Him More. In 2 Cor. 5:14, Paul says, “For the love of Christ compels us ….” What motivated Paul and other Christians to serve the Lord? It was that they had seen and experienced God’s love for them through Jesus Christ. Second, God’s love should motivate us to Love Others. In Matthew 5:43-48, Jesus tells us to “love our enemies” and in verse 48 he encourages us to “be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” The NT is full of encouragements to love other believers. In John 13:34-35, Jesus told His disciples, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” In other words, the way people know that we belong to God is that we love like He loved. Our love for one another is our greatest testimony for Christ! In fact, the Romans were attracted to the gospel because they said about the Christians, “See how they love one another!”
I am grateful for the love of God! Without it, He never would have sent His son to die for us. Without it, He would not lovingly discipline us when we fall short of His holiness. His love is behind every missionary’s desire to leave all and go and share the gospel in a foreign land. His love is the motivation that changes our selfish hearts and causes us to reach out to our friends and neighbors in times of need. His love is the foundation of His work in our lives and is one of the primary ways that He reveals Himself to the world through our lives and our love. May you be surrounded by Him and by His everlasting love!
Teaching Ministry ….
The past month has been very busy for me. I began the month teaching a class on Worship and Prayer with Joel Ragains. Joel was the original director for our Church Planting Department and taught the worship class at Kyiv Theological Seminary for many years. He and his wife, Mary Ellen, were great friends to us while they served in Kyiv. They retired to their home in Indiana a number of years ago and so it was a real joy to have Joel back at KTS teaching our students. But Joel’s real “claim to fame” for us was that he was my best man at our wedding here in Kyiv. He still constantly reminds me that he is still the “best man!” And our wedding was on October 16, 2010 – which was also Joel’s birthday! So, it was an extra special joy to be able to be with Joel again at KTS. It was also a joy to have Sergey Bochko as our translator. Sergey has been our pastor since I moved to Ukraine, and he was our pastor for our wedding also.
Joel taught the students about Worship in the mornings, and I taught on Prayer in the afternoons. As always, this was a great class for the students as they have to think through and evaluate their theology and their practices of worship and prayer. In my time of teaching on prayer, we spent a lot of time looking at various theological issues on prayer as well as examining some ways that they can teach their churches how to have a ministry of prayer. Also, we spent time looking at the attributes of God and seeing how a right theology about God affects our views of prayer and our practice of prayer.
After teaching this class, I had to prepare for teaching a class on Evangelism also at KTS. I am currently teaching this class and Sergey Bochko is also translating for me. Each morning, we work on the theology of evangelism and take time to look at how Jesus and the apostles did evangelism compared to our methods today. Each afternoon, we discuss some practical aspects of evangelism and even participate in some street evangelism – something most of these students have never done. We also talked about friendship evangelism and apologetics. Hopefully the class will help our students to be more biblical in their practice of evangelism as well as training their church members to life a lifestyle of evangelism.
After this class, Katya and I and the girls will travel by train to L’viv where we hope to have some family time together. I will also be spending some time meeting with other teaching staff at Ukrainian Baptist Theological Seminary (UBTS) and getting prepared for my class there in November. This seminary is really growing! They had over 260 new students enroll this fall! It is such a joy to see many of my former students now working there as deans and as teachers at UBTS.
Family Time ….
It is such a joy to see how Kristina and Nadia are growing up. They continue to amaze us with the love for learning and reading. We continue to teach them at home, and they love learning about geography and the various countries of the world and their cultures. We are just finishing learning about Mexico, and they have learned a few Spanish words – they think they are now fluent in Spanish!
We are also continuing to read for the Little House books, and we have just started The Long Winter. We continue to be amazed at the difficulties this pioneer family faced and how they faced these adversities with joy in their lives.
Also, the girls’ dance class has started back, and they enjoy being in the folk dancing class. Nadia has also begun her piano lessons and Kristina is taking flute lessons. So, we have a very busy schedule with the girls’ activities. As usual, the girls continue to love drawing and doing a variety of crafts too. And, even with the cold, they love to be outdoors!
We would ask that you pray for Katya’s mother and grandmother. It looks like they will be approved to immigrate to the United States. This will be a big blessing for them and also a help for us. We are hoping to return to the US in a few years, but we would not be comfortable leaving them here in Ukraine because they have no other family members to care for them if we left. But we ask you to please pray for their health. Both of them have been pretty sick lately and Katya’s 93-year-old grandmother has just gotten COVID. We also have an aunt with Altheimer’s that we are trying to help care for. So, we would appreciate your prayers for health, and also for wisdom and peace about a lot of decisions that will need to be made in the coming months.
Health Issues …
I’m definitely improving but still have some problems with my stomach. Right now, they think the main problem is bile reflux. But we seem to be controlling it with medication right now.
Last month, I had 4 more skin cancer spot removed. While the pathology came back as cancer, they feel pretty certain that they were able to get all the cancer early and hopefully there will not be any additional complications. Thank you for praying for me and my health. I am really hoping to see a lot of improvement in the coming months.
Pray for Ukraine ….
Thank you for praying for Ukraine. The war in the east continues with a few soldiers dying each week. We have students and friends on the front line as soldiers, as chaplains and also as pastors ministering in the villages near the front. Pray for them – for their protection and for many opportunities to share the love of the Lord to the people in the war zone.
Thank you for your continued support and prayers. We are always humbled by how the Lord shows us His love through the generosity of His people. We know that you support us out of your love for us but we also know that your support is because of your love for the Lord and for the spread of His Kingdom. We are grateful that we are able to serve here in Ukraine because of your love and we pray that we can equip a generation of Ukrainian leaders who will be able to share the love of God with the people of Ukraine for many years to come! Thank you for allowing us to serve in this way!
By His Grace,
Jim, Katya, Kristina, and Nadia
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