God is Love
1 John 4:7-10 Dear friends, we should love each other, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has become God’s child. And so everyone who loves knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love to us: He sent his only Son into the world to give us life through him. True love is God’s love for us, not our love for God. He sent his Son as the way to take away our sins.
Whilst love is a word that we all think we understand I wonder sometimes whether we really do. Let’s say I asked you to define love. What would you say? How would you put it?
Love, they say, is what makes the world go round. But as I look around the world, whilst yes, there’s obvious love between family members and other people and whilst yes, there are some great missional and humanitarian initiatives afoot – no doubt about that – man, there’s a lot of hatred too.
I looked up the definition of love in my dictionary and this is what it gave me: a strong feeling of affection. Of course, that’s part of it but anyone who’s been married for any length of time knows that it goes way beyond that. Where is love when you’re not feeling affectionate? When you’re having an argument? When you’re driving each other crazy?
Sadly though, we cling to this completely inadequate definition and then we wonder why love isn’t always like that. God turns the definition completely on its head. Here’s how He puts it:
1 John 4:7-10 Dear friends, we should love each other, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has become God’s child. And so everyone who loves knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love to us: He sent his only Son into the world to give us life through him. True love is God’s love for us, not our love for God. He sent his Son as the way to take away our sins.
God is love. That’s the very definition of love. And He proves His love by sending His Son to die for us. Love … it’s so much more than a feeling.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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