Jeremiah 31:3, commentary and pictures

God loves His people with a love that has no beginning or end, never changes, and endures as long as His throne, and He draws them to Himself with kind love expressed as kindness, mercy, compassion, and tender sympathy. That love is shown toward sinners and the weakest of His flock, and it was revealed in Christ's life from Bethlehem to Calvary, where His wounds and His giving of His life show its depth and how greatly He values people. He draws people not by force or fear but by lovingkindness that attracts, softens, and subdues the heart, seeking the sinner while he is still far off, so that every longing to return is His Spirit wooing the wanderer, and assurance of that love gives hope and leads to repentance and return. This promise is a pledge of His care that quiets fear and doubt, comforts those who are tried, tempted, afflicted, and sorrowing, holds up the feeble without growing tired, and lifts the soul into peace when the heart is fixed on His lovingkindness in simple faith. That enduring, richly supplied love is to be answered by love for God and gratitude shown in praise and in gifts and offerings to save souls, by Christlike tenderness toward the young and the erring, and by a holy life of walking in His ways and obeying Him.

Words and Historical Setting

Everlasting means a love that has no beginning and no end. It means a love that never changes and endures as long as God's throne. Lovingkindness means kind love by which God draws people to Himself. It is expressed as kindness, mercy, compassion, and tender sympathy.

In its setting the verse belongs to Jeremiah's prophecy of Israel's restoration. It records God's promise to bring the exiles back. There Israel receives grace in the wilderness and is promised rest, showing God's enduring love in His care for His people.

God's Everlasting Love

The verse declares that God loves His people and sinners with a love that is everlasting, and that with lovingkindness He draws them to Himself. His drawing belongs to His work of restoring His people and making them His own. That same love calls for Christlike tenderness and humble, self-sacrificing care for the young and for those who have done wrong. God calls His people out of the world to be holy and devoted to Him, so that drawing near to God is met by His drawing near to them, yet His love and privileges do not remove the need to walk in His ways and obey Him, for sin separates people from God and can turn their privileges into a curse. He loves with a love that is simply everlasting.

It reveals infinite fatherly compassion, greater even than the tenderness shown in the parable of the prodigal son. The Father's heart yearns over the sinner while he is still far from the Father's house, wasting his life in a strange country, loving him with a love that has no beginning or end and drawing him with kind love. Every longing awakened in the soul to return to God is the tender pleading of His Spirit, wooing and entreating and drawing the wanderer to the Father's heart of love. God so yearns for the sinner even while far off, and welcomes the repentant one who returns. Those who are doubting and trembling are therefore called to look up, because Jesus lives to make intercession for them.

That everlasting love is revealed throughout Christ's earthly life from Bethlehem to Calvary. At Calvary His wounds reveal its depth, making human ingratitude and lack of zeal astonishing, and showing how greatly He values fallen people, for whom He gave His life. God has chosen His people to be holy and blameless in His presence. His love attracts, softens, and subdues the heart, so that those who behold it hear His voice and follow Him, not merely from fear of punishment or hope of reward, for He draws through lovingkindness and not by force or fear.

It reaches even the weakest and feeblest of His flock, whose needs God knows. His enduring love leads Him to draw them to Himself, to provide what they need, and to send His message and bring help to workers and people in many places wherever they are. With mercy He sends His message to meet their needs. This love gives reason not to be discouraged, for the Saviour supplies every need for this life and eternity, and sustains and helps His servants in every time of need as they devote themselves to His work.

In that everlasting love Christ takes believers into covenant relation with Himself. He draws them to Himself, cleanses them from sin, and makes them His sons and daughters, choosing them to be holy and blameless. With that same everlasting love the Saviour loves the church. That love does not give everything desired, but when believers wander away and lose spiritual power He permits trials, affliction, adversity, and disappointed hopes to cause them to stop and think, to bring repentance and desire to draw near to God, and to cause wholehearted return, and when they return He receives them with loving assurances of pardon and draws near to them, never allowing them to be tempted above what they are able.

Drawing Sinners Home

Christ draws people by lovingkindness, not by force or fear, and that everlasting love revealed from Bethlehem to Calvary attracts, softens and subdues the heart so that those who behold it hear His voice and follow Him, not merely from fear of punishment or hope of reward. He draws the sinner while still far off, while wasting life in a strange country far from the Father's house, with a Father's heart yearning over him in infinite compassion greater even than the tenderness shown in the parable of the prodigal son. That love has no beginning or end, and with kind love He welcomes the repentant who returns. Every longing awakened in the soul to return to God is the tender pleading of His Spirit, wooing and entreating and drawing the wanderer to the Father's heart of love. Those who are doubting and trembling are therefore called to look up, because Jesus lives to make intercession for them.

The assurance of that everlasting love gives the sinner hope and moves him to return to God. Drawn back by lovingkindness expressed as kindness, mercy and compassion, he is led to repentance and return. This drawing is God's work of restoring His people and making them His own, cleansing them and transforming the soul into Christ's likeness. In that change pride becomes humility, enmity and unbelief give way to faith, confidence, hope and love, and the deformed soul gains beauty and excellence until grace has conformed the character fully to the perfect Model.

Christ patiently reproves people for their errors and draws them close through love rather than cutting them off. When they wander away from Him and lose spiritual power, having been taken into covenant relation with Himself in everlasting love, He may permit trials, affliction, adversity and disappointed hopes to come upon them to cause them to stop and think. That love does not give everything desired, but uses such discipline to bring repentance and desire to draw near to God and to cause wholehearted return with full purpose of heart. When they return He receives them with loving assurances of pardon and draws near to them, never allowing them to be tempted above what they are able.

Comfort and Trust

The everlasting love is a pledge of divine care that strengthens trust in the promises and quiets fear and doubt. That enduring love is reason to place oneself trustfully in God's hands even when personal plans for relief do not meet expectations. The promise is to be believed and trusted, and an imperfect life does not cancel His love nor make Christ's self-sacrificing life and perfect character unavailable to the believer. His unfailing love is reason to trust Jesus, and as trust in the Redeemer grows, love for Him and faith in Him grow and increase.

Jesus as substitute and surety and righteousness loves each trusting person with an everlasting love and will never leave them. He is friend in life and in death and the crown of rejoicing, worthy of fullest faith. Those who wait only upon God in entire dependence are held up by His everlasting arms, and sorrows become discipline for a higher life because appropriated grace lets trials purify and fit for heaven. He knows every pain and anguish and gives grace to endure so that faith does not fail. The Lord's tender sympathy comforts those who are tried, tempted, afflicted, sorrowing, and troubled as their Stronghold. His love never grows tired in holding up the feeble, and keeping the heart fixed on His lovingkindness and looking to Him in simple faith to guide lifts the soul above daily grief and perplexity into peace.

Those who are doubting and trembling are called to look up because Jesus lives to make intercession for them. This love gives reason not to be discouraged, for the Saviour supplies every need for this life and eternity and sustains and helps His servants in every time of need as they devote themselves to His work.

Response and Christian Living

God's enduring love is richly supplied, and it is to be answered by love for Him in return. Because that everlasting love draws people and was shown in sacrifice, gratitude is to be expressed not only in praise and thanksgiving but also in gifts and offerings used to save souls. That same love calls for Christlike tenderness and humble, self-sacrificing care for the young and for those who have done wrong. In the home, learning from Christ's love means repeating the story of God's everlasting love to children, so that even before they can fully reason they may receive a loving spirit. Erring ones are to be patiently reproved and drawn close in love rather than cut off because of their errors.

God calls His people out of the world to be holy and devoted to Him, and when they draw near to Him He draws near to them. His love and the privileges He grants do not remove the need to walk in His ways and obey Him, for sin separates from Him and can turn privilege into a curse. That everlasting love calls those who serve Him to work for Him and to seek by prayer, counsel, warnings, and invitations to bring their families into His service.