GOD IS LOVE
“By this the love of God was manifested in us,
(The First Letter of John 4: 9-10 NASB)
that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world
so that we might live through Him.
In this is love,
not that we loved God,
but that He loved us
and sent His Son to be the propitiation
[the atonement; the payment]
for our sins.”
Despite how we say the words: “I love you” speaks the same emotion toward the one being spoken to.
- We may turn to our daughter and say, “Ik houd van jou”—Dutch words that mean “I love you.”
- Then we may turn to our friend, who we are enjoying time with, sharing coffee, pastries, and conversation, saying, “Je t’aime”—French words that display just how much we are enjoying and ‘loving’ the delicious pastry.
- To our son, we might turn to offer this endearment: “Te quiero”—Spanish words that display the ‘love’ we have within our hearts for the young man.
- In Italian, we may gaze out at the beauty of the sea and exclaim, “Ti amo”—words that speak the ‘love’ we feel for the warm, pleasant, Italian seashore.
- “Eu amo-te”—The Portuguese statement for our ‘love,’ words that may roll right off our lips. Or, we may say—
- “Ich liebe dich”—when we want our German neighbors to understand just how much we ‘love’ the tasty European German food we are eating.
- “I love you”—The world may shout these English words of ’love’ from the rooftops, from the mountaintops, and even from the valleys, as we desire the world to know just how much we are fully ‘in love.’
LOVE. Yes, we have so many words that can be spoken to display to another our LOVE for another, for a food, or for a landscape. However, without the author of LOVE, we would not ever truly understand the effects of REAL LOVE, for it is from GOD, WE ARE LOVED!
“By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world . . .” (The First Letter of John 4: 9a NASB)
The Creator of the universe knew we needed a Savior, so in His magnificent LOVE for us, God sent Jesus to humanity, to be born, to live among us, to serve, to teach, and to die, for us, giving his life, ”so that we might live through Him. In this is love, . . .” (The First Letter of John 4: 9b-10a NASB)
God did this for us!
Maybe we need to repeat this statement, to help us fully understand.
GOD DID THIS—FOR US!
Not because “we loved God, but that [because] He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (The First Letter of John 4: 10b NASB)
On the cross, Jesus demonstrated how we are to love as HE LOVED. He revealed to us how we are to surrender, to sacrifice. Jesus suffered the penalty for our sins, removing the effects of our sins, so that as we repent, we can be reconciled to God. Jesus Christ alone remains the only one capable of being the atonement for mankind.
Once we have accepted the salvation received through God’s amazing grace, we can never LOVE too much. Never will we fulfill the whole obligation ‘to love’ and never will we reach the place where we have ‘loved’ enough. Never can we say, “I have ‘loved’ enough, so I will stop ‘loving.’ “
FOR WE ARE LIKE CHRIST JESUS MOST WHEN WE LOVE OTHERS.
To help us learn the many ways we can ‘love’ others, God wrote His Love Letter to us—the Bible.
“You are our letter,
(The Second Letter of Paul to the Corinthians 3: 2-3 NASB)
written in our hearts,
known and read by all men;
being manifested that you are a letter of Christ,
cared for by us,
written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God,
not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”
Our lives prove that God is the author of our LOVE, and HE alone holds the pen that writes the LOVE story HE creates through our lives. So—
- May we ‘LOVE’ well;
- May we lift others in prayer to Jesus;
- May we lay them directly at Jesus’ feet.
LORD, help us daily, to ‘love’ as You have shown us how to ‘love’ in Jesus’ name. Amen.