God's Love for People.

I have been reading The Joy of  Calvinism by Greg  Forster. In Chapter 2, he talks about the love of God as sacrificial, like the love that humans have towards each other. Now he defines love as how one behaves towards something. He mentions that this not a new idea of love instead we like it when people do or don't do things for us. He connects this with God's love for humans. Not in a general sense but in a particular sense. God love humans to save them. He says "(w)e all know that the test of my love for God is whether I'm willing to sacrifice other things I love for God's sake. But the test of God's love for me is exactly the same" 74. This is most evident when we consider the cross, as Forster notes. Jesus willing went to the cross (Jn 18:11, Matt 26:53-54) as God have gave His only son for our salvation (Jn 3:16). Jesus did think that He status as God was something to be used for His advantage but gave it up to become a slave and rescue his people (Phil 2:6-7).

This element of God's love to those whom He saved is really magnificent. God loved us  so much that we are His top priority to save us. This comes out in the promise that God works together all thing for good for the people who love Him. That God calls us to love Him in the same way that He has loved us. This is not so feeling based emotion. That is not true love, true love makes sacrifices for those they love.

This plays into how we treat God in our daily life. We show our love to God by obeying His commands because we sacrifice our own desires (Jn 14:15 c.f Matt. 16:24-25). This love is best seen within our hearts are we joyfully obey without any rebellion in our heart. Augustine makes this distinction in his treatise, The Spirit and the Letter (note that this is the title page, click next to continue to the text). God gave Jesus for our salvation and Jesus willing gave His live. We are called to do the same. Our love for God is not feeling based but is a reflection of our obedience to Him. The amazement of God's love for us should break our wills and force us to repent of our sins, our lack of obedience. We obey because of the the great love that God showed toward us in saving us through Christ. 

1 John 4:7-10

Beloved, we might love, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been begotten from God and is knows God. ⁸ Everyone who does not love is not known by God because God is love.⁹ In this the love of God is manifested in our case, because God sent His only son into the world in order that we might come to live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he has loved us and sent His son as a propitiation for our sins. (My translation)

John continues to drive home that love and the Christian's life are together as one. Verse 7 gives the substance of our own love. Those that are in Christ love because God loved them. His is the one that gives us love. Also notice that love characterizes the one that is "begotten" and "knows" God. This relates to John 14, where Jesus mentions that love for him is equal to obeying Him. The action of loving others identifies one as a Christian. Private devotion does not shows one to be a Christian. This is not to neglect these things because that is what God uses to help Christians grow in love. The negation in verse 8 just repeats what is said in verse 7.
Lets not move to quickly past this. The way we act towards others show much. In Lane and Tripp's book, "How People Change," they explain that how people react in situations reveal their hearts. Other people and situations do not case a person to act in certain ways. As Christians, when we act in a not loving way it reflects bad on the goodness and love of God. Now, this is not a excuse for those that do not believe. A life that is characterize as not loving shows that they are not really from God. This is noticed in the difference in verse 7 and 8. The verb "knows" and "known" are the same verb is different tenses. For the sake of simplicity, the first is present and the second is past tense. This difference in the tenses show a great deal. It is the difference is one knowing God and the other never knowing God.
Finally verses 9  and 10 starts with a common phrase in 1 John, "in this." John uses this phrase to connect different arguments. It is used 14 times in 1 John and it means from this past information this next set of information is also true. So here,  John is saying that we know this love of God because of He sent His son on earth. This was done so that Christians can have life. Verse 10 then gives us an explanation of this, using "in this." God's love is demonstrated in the sacrifice of Jesus as a "propitiation for our sins."
What does this mean for our life? We love as a continuation of His love to us. Our love reflects the love of Christ. This love is based on the new life that we have in Christ. Christ who acted loving all the time, is our example of what love looks like. It is not a self-seeking love but a love of others. Christian life is not about me but about Christ. As we learn more about God, it should cause us to love others more than self. It is seeing Christ as the one that bore our sin and then living accordingly to others. Love is not seeking revenge for sins committed against us but forgiving others. Love seeks to bring life and forgiveness restores the broken life we have with others. 

LOVE YOUR ENEMIES!!!!

The reason that we are to love our enemies is because God loved His enemies first. His love was displayed when His Son, Christ Jesus, died on the cross to provide the only way for humans, enemies of God, to be reconciled to him. So we should praise Him for that.

Praise God as the One who provides justice to the sinners and also justifies the sinner. Praise God for redeeming those who trust in His Son alone for salvation. Praise God for the destruction of those who are lawless before him. Praise God for giving you one more chance to believe before you face eternal damnation because of your sins.