In this second lesson about participating in God’s mission, we’re studying the motivation for the mission. Just to give the ending away, it’s love—God’s love for us is the catalyst for his mission and our motivator to reach out to the world.
In return, though, God demands our love for him and commands us to have that same God-sized love for others. As we participate in God’s mission, can we recognize how big God’s love is for us and let that knowledge motivate us to tell others about the mission? As we study these five passages, these crucial texts from the Bible, they will help us understand better our approach to the people of the world in light of the Bible’s teachings about God’s love.
God’s love is pure, exclusive (Deuteronomy 7:7-8)
In this passage, God declares his love for the people of Israel, giving a beautiful testimony to his love for his chosen people and the blessings he’s brought to them—not because of what they had done to deserve it, but “because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which he swore to your forefathers.” He just loved Israel.
While this declaration is inspiring on its own merit, what was its intended motivation? We find that in the context surrounding it.
In the beginning of the chapter, Moses calls the people together to hear God’s commands. The beginning of the chapter is God’s promise to deliver the lands God had promised Israel, but with the promise came several commands, namely to destroy the inhabitants of them completely, make no treaties with them (v. 2) and tear down their places of pagan worship (v. 5). All of this destruction was intended to motivate Israel to continue being “a holy people to the Lord” (v. 6). God knew mixing with pagans like the Canaanites would lead down a path of apostasy, therefore he ordered total destruction to keep the Israelite’s worship pure.
So what’s our motivation from this kind of exclusive love? Is it a command to destroy anyone who doesn’t believe in God? Of course not. Our New Covenant calls for Christians to show love to all people so they may know God’s Son, Christ. But, like this Deuteronomic command, we must keep ourselves pure.
God’s love is forever (Psalm 136:1-11, 23-26)
This psalm is a retelling of all the things God had done for Israel from creation to bringing the people out of bondage to his continued protection of them from their enemies. Apparently, the people responded to each portion of the retelling with the phrase, “For his lovingkindness is everlasting,” an acknowledgement that God’s love and subsequent favor are eternal.
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As W.H. Bellinger Jr. wrote in Psalms: Reading and Studying the Book of Praises, Psalm 136 is a reminder to the people of divine providence, which “has a history in the Old Testament, the recounting of which brings hope and help for the future.” Remembering God’s loving, eternal providence in our own pasts can provide us with the motivation to participate in God’s mission, too. Perhaps when we recall our blessings, we will respond, “For his lovingkindness is everlasting.”
God’s love is beyond our understanding (Jonah 3:10-4:3, 9-11)
When we read this passage from Jonah, it may leave us wondering. Jonah, after (finally) being faithful to God and taking God’s message of warning to the people of Nineveh about the city’s impending destruction, led the people to turn from wickedness to God. The Lord, seeing their change of heart, changed his, and spared the city.
Strangely, it angered Jonah. Could he have felt no compassion for this people? Did he feel discredited as a prophet? It’s unknown. What is known is that he was so angry he asked God to kill him!
God had to resort to an object lesson to teach Jonah about his love. He reminded Jonah of the sheltering plant God grew and let wither in a day. God reminded Jonah about his anger over the plant, too. God had to remind Jonah: “You had compassion on the plant. … Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons?" (vv. 4:10-11). It is a testament to God’s loving mercy that he spared the wicked city. It also is a motivating lesson for us to be merciful and love others, even if we feel they don’t deserve it.
God’s love gives life (John 3:16)
John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” It’s a foundational, climactic verse in our Christian theology that is also possibly the Bible’s best-known verse.
As Shepherd’s Notes summarizes, this brief verse gives us three key aspects to our faith: “God loves us. God’s love is so great that he sent his only Son to tell the world about God’s love (and) anyone who believes in God’s Son will never die but live forever with God.” It is God’s love for us that extends this offer to us and his power that makes it possible.
God’s love is offered for all (Romans 5:6-8)
This passage seems to magnify John 3:16, giving additional information about the extent of God’s love. As the Apostle Paul writes in verses 7-8: “For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
In this how-much-more argument, Paul is saying that not only did God’s son die for us, but he died for us as sinners, as his enemies. Our motivation to love like God loves is to love even our enemies.
Questions to explore
• What motivates God to care about the world? What motivates you?
• Look back at the passage from Deuteronomy. No reason is given for why God loved Israel. Do you love anyone or anything for no obvious reason?
• In Psalm 136, the people respond to the Psalmist’s recounting of a blessing from God with the phrase, “For his lovingkindness is everlasting.” What acts of God’s love could cause you to respond the same way?
• John 3:16 paints a picture of sacrificial love. What would you sacrifice to see God’s mission accomplished?
• The passage from Jonah is an illustration of showing loving mercy to people Jonah probably hated. Name a person or group you strongly dislike and meditate on how you can show him/her/them love.
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