“He that does not love, does not know God, for God is love." God’s love is my favorite Biblical theme, if theme is the right word. According to 1John 4:8, love is the very essence of our faith. God’s love is not discriminating. Through Jesus we know that God loves everyone. He is not pleased with everyone, but He loves everyone. When we are told that “God so loved the world” no exceptions are given. It does not say that God loves most of the world, but that He loves the world – period. We should be glad because that means that God loves us. Also, it means that God never stops loving us. He is not always pleased with us and will discipline us, but He never stops loving us. It would follow that through Jesus, the love of God dwells in us; therefore, we should attempt to love all people as well. It will never be easy, but it will be the Christian thing to do and will make us more Christ like. God’s love is immeasurable. One of my favorite passages in the Bible is Romans 8:38-39: “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.” This passage describes a love that has no bounds. God’s love is so deep and wide that nothing can separate us from it. Can’t we see this emanating from the cross? You cannot measure a love that will hold true even when the recipients of that love are not worthy of it. (We call it grace.) After all, Jesus prayed from the cross, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” We can put our own names on “they.” God’s love is active. We read it in Romans 5:8: “But God commends love for us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” God’s love is not a mere feeling; rather, it is an action. Remember: “God so loved the world that He gave….” This means that God acted on our behalf to save us. God demonstrated His great love for us by having Christ die for us. He did this though we are all sinners. We can go back to the Old Testament and see God’s love at work for His people. We see God's love in the deliverance of Israel from Egypt. We see God's active love in the protection of Israel during their years of wandering in the desert. Throughout the Bible, we see the active love of God, working in behalf of His people. What was true in the Old and New Testaments is still true today. God loves us and He demonstrates it through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. During this month of love, concentrate on the fact that God is love and that He loves us in spite of our sins and in spite of ourselves. There is nothing more reassuring than the fact that we have a God who loves us. We can depend on the fact that Jesus loves us. It is true that, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so….” Shouldn’t we feel compelled by the love of Christ to tell others about this God who is love and who loves us? Go look in the mirror and say to the image that you see there: “God loves me.” He really does. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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