WE LOVE HIM BECAUSE HE FIRST LOVED US

We love him, because he first loved us (1 John 4:19). Eight words appear here in our commonly used English Bible. These are simple words requiring no explanation other than this: The Greek for love and loved transliterates as agapao which is used of Gods love in contrast to phileo the word for brotherly love. Notice that the two pronouns, we and us in our verse must refer to the same people. The grammar of the sentence requires it. God loves these people and these people love God. The people who love God are not more in number than those whom God loves. The people represented by the we and the us are the same people. It cannot be otherwise. We who love Him are the us whom He loved first. There is no reason given as to why God loves these people, but there is a reason given as to why these people love God. It is because God loved them first. We ask this: When did God first determine to love these people? The Bible says Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world (Acts 15:18). God loved these people from before the foundation of the world. God determined to love these people before He created the first man and allowed him to sin. He loved these people before they existed. These people and Gods love for them has always been a part of Gods great plan of redemption since He formulated it before the world began. Before the world began He planned to act in a particular way toward these people. This we know because it was God Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began (2 Timothy 1:9). Gods plan was so certain that He promised eternal life before the world began in Titus 1:2 where we read: In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began. Gods covenant of grace was not with man as many Protestants claim, but rather between the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit for no man existed when eternal life was promised before the world began as this last verse says. What did God do before the world began for these people whom He loved back then? How is it that He included them in His eternal plan? The Bible makes it clear in Ephesians 1:4-6: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. God predestinated these loved people to be holy and blameless. He chose them in Christ before the foundation of the world and He made them accepted in His eternal beloved Son, Christ Jesus. The reason God did these things was simply because it was according to the good pleasure of his will. It was not because of anything these people had done or ever would do. Romans 9:10-16 makes this last point clear: when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. God loved Jacob and hated Esau before either was born. Bible believers conclude that God predestinated, chose, and made some people accepted in the beloved before the foundation of the world and that He did so without regard for any action on their part. There was no human cause to Gods love. God willed to love the unlovely! God continues His eternal plan, working in those whom He predestinated, chose and made accepted in the beloved. He regenerates the us whom He loves, and brings all the us to true contrition and broken-heartedness over both their sin nature and their sinful acts. Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of according to 2 Corinthians 7:10. Along with repentance God gives them its twin faith which is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8) and is called the faith of Gods elect (Titus 1:1). It is called this because this kind of faith is only given to those whom God has elected or chosen to salvation. Having given those whom He loves repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, (Acts 20:21) God continues His work of conversion in them, For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure (Philippians 2:13). And so when we read, We love him, because he first loved us, we understand that this verse speaks of a particular people whom God loved from before the foundation of the world. These people love God because of the fruit of His love what He did for them. It was part of Gods

great plan to create mankind and choose to love some and do all for them in order to make them His sons and daughters. If you are one of the we who love Him because He first loved you give Him all the glory for your blessed spiritual standing and take no glory unto yourself for Salvation is of the Lord (Jonah 2:9). Remember: God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence (1 Corinthians 1:26-29).