BECAUSE…
For days and some nights, I have been in Romans 5:3-5 and encouraged by this portion of the passage and I hope you will be too if going through trials which is the context of the passage…
“and hope does not disappoint, BECAUSE the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”-{Rom 5:4-5}
The hope, speaks of confident assurance, that He develops in us through the process of “tribulations, sufferings,”-{v3} does not will not put us to shame, “BECAUSE…” here he gives the reason for saying that, “BECAUSE…” God loves us… He has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. God loves us and has gifted us the Holy Spirit to enable us to know this, understand this, and experience His Divine love.
“Poured out,” literally means to lavishly pour out to overflowing, not an inconsistent trickle, but a lavish pouring out to overflowing!
“Poured out,” -” Ekcheo” is “present tense,” which means it began at a point in time and continues, it has not stopped, will not stop, be cut off, reversed, withdrawn, but continues to be poured out and poured out, there is no slow down, or diminishing of His resource of love, for He is eternal and His resources are eternal, without end. I love this! A Love without end, initiated by God, sustained by God, a forever love!
So, never fear, that He no longer loves you or has stopped. It cannot be for He has said and He still says, He has “poured out His love ” for you through the Holy Spirit who has been gifted to us! Also, the tense is “Passive” which means it is something done to us, we are the recipients of His love. It is His love for us not our love for Him is what Paul is saying! You are the focus, favored recipient of the Love of God! It is a love of preference. It is the same word for “love,” used in Ephesians 2:4 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),”-{Ephesians 2:4-5}. It is a powerful love because it is Divine love, no greater love. It is a love of preference. as the word “Agape” speaks of His particular love! ” Agape- Properly. Love which centers in moral preference. In the NT, (agápē) typically refers to divine love (= what God prefers.”-{Helps Words studies}. God loves you and here it is that you may experience, know, subjectively this great unchanging commitment of God’s love for you which is personal, intimate, unwavering, unchanging but fixed upon you, and God has given, gifted us the Holy Spirit to carry out this ministry to you to be assured that He loves you, and you are eternally secure and kept and loved by Him!
One great evidence of His love is the gift of the Holy Spirit to you, who is His agent for you to know His love. Ephesians 3 Paul prays that believers would be rooted and grounded in His love and to be strengthened inwardly to “comprehend,” His Love. It is a verb and means to seize, to grasp to make one’s own! And to know experientially the breath, length, depth, height of His all-encompassing love for us -{Read Ephesians 3:15-19}. The Holy Spirit is a gift of love to you and His ministry in part is that you may seize, grasp, and make your own the reality and experience of His love for you! What a gift of love to you the Holy Spirit is from God! Think about that… and thank Him for such great love. The Cross shows it, the resurrection affirms it and the Holy Spirit reveals and applies to you personally. God forever loves you!
One of the ministries the Holy Spirit to us, to YOU is to make sure you know experientially that God loves you, unreservedly and without end! As one writer says it is like parched ground that is soaked by rain. How refreshing and comforting and liberating, enthralling, humbling and wonderful is the thought, the truth that God Almighty, in need of nothing or no one outside of Himself, Creator and sustainer of Heaven and earth…. loves you! That is why you can hope in Him and never be put to shame, “BECAUSE….” He loves you, and will never for any reason stop loving you!
Why can you have hope that will not disappoint, or put you to shame in your troubles? “BECAUSE… ” God Loves YOU! 🙂
“Loved with everlasting love,
Led by grace that love to know;
Spirit, breathing from above,
Thou hast taught me it is so.
Oh, this full and perfect peace!
Oh, this transport all divine!
In a love which cannot cease,
I am His, and He is mine.”
-{Robinson}