Our world throws around the word “love” a lot. We love chocolate; we love sports; we love our friends. But what does love even mean?
God’s Word, the Bible, helps us understand what love is. True love comes from God because “God is love†(1 John 4:8, 16). In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul paints a vivid picture of love: it is patient, kind, humble, generous, forgiving, and never gives up. God shows His perfect love in all He has done for us. God loves us so much that even when we rejected Him and lived in sin, He sent His Son Jesus to die for us so that everyone who puts their trust in Him can have eternal life and be with Him forever.
Because God loves us, He has freed us from the guilt and enslavement of sin, and one day we will live forever without sin. As Christians, we are totally forgiven, and now God calls us to live according to His good ways. It wouldn’t be loving for God to say, “Go ahead and sin,†because sin hurts us and those around us. Instead, when we live in His love, we keep God’s commands (John 14:15). And God doesn’t expect us to be able to do this in our own strength; rather, the Holy Spirit empowers us to obey Him.
In Matthew 22:36-40, Jesus summarized what following Him looks like in two commandments. The greatest commandment is to love God and follow Him with our lives. The second commandment is to love others as we love ourselves. Jesus calls us to show His love to everyone, even our enemies and those who are different from us (Matthew 5:44). After all, this is how God loves us. While we were God’s enemies, He restored us to relationship with Him through Jesus’s death and resurrection (Romans 5:10). Because of what Jesus has done, we can live in God’s love for us.
Our human love fails, and our ideas of love are broken and distorted by sin. But God’s unconditional love never fails. Nothing—no sin, no power, no person—can separate us from His love (Romans 8:31-39). • Abby Ciona
• Can you think of a time someone showed you genuine love?
• How might God be inviting you to receive His love today? And how might He be giving you opportunities to share His love?
But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. Romans 5:8 (NLT)
Read Verses:
Ps.46
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