What Manner of Love
1 John 3:1-2
A survey was done a few years ago where participants were asked: “What three words would you like most to hear said to you?” The top three answers sum up the needs of all of mankind.
- I love you.
- I forgive you.
- Supper is ready.
Doesn’t that sum up our needs? We have emotional, physical, and spiritual needs. We want to be loved, forgiven, and fed. God meets all these needs by one primary truth, and that is He loves us.
As I’ve preached on the topic of the love of God during the last nine months, I feel like John must have felt when he wrote our text. John was known as the Apostle of love. Yet, he was so overwhelmed by the love of God, all he could say was, “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us!” He couldn’t find the words to adequately express the love of God. Words like wonderful… amazing… marvelous… incredible… magnificent all seem to fall short of the true character of God’s love!
God’s love is as infinite as God Himself — “God is love.”
I. The CALL to contemplate (“Behold…”).
- “Behold,” means “to look closely and ponder; to take notice.”
- “Behold,” is like a flashing light on a highway designed to get our attention. It calls for one to stop… to contemplate… to consider the truth of what is being said.
- “Behold,” a word that tells us not to rush or casually pass by what is being said. “Take a long lingering look until it registers.”
- “Behold” occurs over 1,200 times in the Bible. It usually indicates something that is amazing and worthy of serious consideration:
- Behold, a virgin shall be with child,
- •Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world
- Behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.
- Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself:
- Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him,
- Behold, I come quickly:
- Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
BEHOLD, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us…
A. Consider the “MANNER” of love.
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“What manner of “is translated from a word that means”from what country, race, tribe, or realm” (cf. Jud. 8:18). God’s love is a heavenly love that is foreign to this world.
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In Matthew 8:27 the disciples used the word when they saw the Lord Jesus still the storm and raging sea. “What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!” They never saw anything like it! Christ’s ability and power was not ordinary or of this world.
- It is not of this world. God’s love is an “out-of-this-world” kind of love! There is nothing else like it.
B. Consider the MEANING of love.
- All we can do is behold it and contemplate its wonder.
- Where can we “behold” this love? AT CALVARY, and “Survey the Wondrous Cross
- 1 John 3:16— “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us!”
- But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).
II. The CONFERRING of charity (“…love the Father hath bestowed upon us…”). This is “love in action.”
PARTIAL sermon: See PDF for full sermon
