We measure all sorts of objects by way of comparing them to some standard.
It is important to measure things correctly with the right instrument. But some things are harder to measure like love.
How do we measure if someone loves us “a lot” or “a little”?
God does not leave us in the dark about how much He loves us.
He gives us two measurements of His love, both dealing with the essence of love as giving. One measurement is giving up oneself or sacrifice. The other is giving of yourself to benefit the other person.
We will look at both of these and then explore why so often we don’t believe God’s love for us.
Love as sacrifice - Romans 5:1-8
We are declared righteous in God’s sight by faith in Christ Jesus and now stand in His grace of undeserved favor. We have a firm expectation of our future glory with Him. Even trials in our life only confirm this as they show God’s new nature working in us to mature us.
But another guarantee is God’s love poured out in our hearts through His Spirit.
It is an abundance as shown in the idea of pouring and the verb here is a perfect passive. Perfect shows it is ongoing and passive that it is solely God’s work and not dependent on me.
Verses 6-8 show even more how this pouring is measured. We were helpless with no ability or potential to help ourselves yet Christ died for us ungodly ones. People can die for those they consider worthy but God shows us that He loves us by sending His Son to die for us when we had no claim on His love and no merit of our own. His death for us was the ultimate sacrifice to take on our sins.
This is God’s measure of sacrifice and love for us.
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
(1 John 3:1)
Love as giving for another’s benefit - 1 John 3:1
God loves us so much that we are now called His children. He has taken on the responsibility of being a Father to us. This involves His care, protection, provision, identification, and encouragement.
It is a permanent, committed relationship. No father worthy of the name would stop loving his children. God “has bestowed” His love on us - another perfect verb showing that it continues on. This is given, not earned. He loves us as His own Son, Jesus.
Hebrews 12:5-7 shows that God treats us as sons and disciplines us for our good.
We need to remember this as a sign of His love and not His rejection.
Our problem
We often do not believe God loves us and so don’t really experience it.
Why? We see a situation and substitute our own measurement and criteria for love instead of God’s.
We become the measurement instead. We see this in two areas.
We can distrust God’s dealings.
Like Adam and Eve, we can see limitations or difficulties in light of what we think instead of having God’s perspective and as a result, be suspicious of Him. Since we cannot see how God is loving us, we don’t believe He is.
We also can despair from our own shortcomings. We can focus on our sins and imperfections and think God could not love one like me. We easily fall for this and believe our thoughts rather than God’s thoughts.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him…
Psalm 103:11
We put way too much stock and reliability on our own feelings and perspective.
How do we get out?
Ephesians 3:14-19 show God’s method.
We need to admit our need and pray. God will strengthen us by His Spirit to help us overcome our stinking thinking. He also makes Christ’s presence in our lives real. We are already rooted and grounded (both perfect passive verb forms again) in His love, showing its permanency and independence from my actions. His Spirit helps us really comprehend the limitlessness of His love and also experience it.
This is not on the level of feelings that come and go but deep within He speaks to our most inner self and affirms and makes His love real to us.
Assignment from Psalm 103:11 - Go out and see the stars on a clear night.
Do we know that God’s love for us is as great as the distance from the stars to us? If not, what is “clouding” our view?
Pray for God to help in these areas. The stars are still there just as God’s love is, whether we believe it or not. God can help us clear the fog to really know His love.
Here is a shockingly true statement: God is the easiest person in the universe to get along with. His love, mercy, and grace make Him so.
What have you discovered about God’s love that has helped you?
