Love is something all of us need but not all of us receive in the way we desire.
Love can be beautiful when expressed in the ways it was meant.
Love can also be distorted and abused in a way that it was not created for.
The origin of Love
The Bible describes God as a God of Love.
1 John 4:8 states that,
“God is Love”
The Bible also states that this same God of Love created the world through the power of his voice. Genesis 1 has that repeated phrase ‘and God said’ in each day of creation.
Genesis 1 goes on to describe how God made mankind ‘in his own image’ (Gen 1:27). If the God who created the world is love and we are made in his image, then it stands to reason that we are made to love and to be loved.
That’s why we are born into families where love is expected to be seen. It’s why men and women come together as husband and wife.
It’s also something we expect and should see in Christ’s people represented in the church.
1 John 4:7 calls those trusting in Christ to,
“…love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.”
We might think that our present circumstances making loving each other harder. In many ways it does. But one of the things John encourages us to be is a people marked by love. Love can be expressed in a phone call. It can be expressed in a card or a letter (remember those?!). It can be expressed in quietly praying for others.
The reason we are called to love is because as believers we are now part of a kingdom where love is central.
The Perfect Model of Love
The unique claim of the God of the Bible is that He is ‘Triune’. That means that whilst He is One God there are three persons; the Father, the Son and the Spirit.
This Holy godhead has always existed and is characterised by perfect relationships of love within it.
So when we say ‘God is Love’ we mean that the persons in the godhead literally model what love looks like for us...perfectly...both in the past, in the present and in the future.
The love displayed in sacrifice
This loving God also expresses his love in the sending of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In his gospel John declares,
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
In his first letter John puts it like this,
“…the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.” (1 John 4:9)
A week out from Maundy Thursday I am thankful to God for his love shown in sending the Lord Jesus to us that enables me to know something of the love of the Triune God. I don't deserve the love God has lavished on me through the Lord Jesus, which should make me all the more grateful for it!
And I pray that the love that I have known is expressed to my brothers and sisters in Christ as well as those who need to know of God’s love at this time.
I’ll leave John to conclude with far better words than I could muster!
“Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.” (1 John 4:11-12)
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