2.14.11

1 John 4:7-11

God's Love and Ours

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.


Dear friend,

Today we'll spend millions if not billions of dollars on meaningless cards, chocolates, flowers and trinkets to express our so-called love for one another. We manufacture feel good moments through material items so that others feel loved and love us in return. Happy Valentine's Day!

But do we really know what true love is? How do we define it? Love is often based on some condition, therefore making it conditional. We love others as a condition of familial or personal ties. We love people we are attracted to and that make us feel good. Our love is mercurial, meaning it changes with great unpredictability! We love based on emotions and feelings that can change from one moment to the next. How can we even begin to understand unconditional love?

The parent and child relationship seems to come the closest to experiencing unconditional love apart from God. Parents choose to love their children through life's ups and downs. Regardless of their successes and failures, the number of times they disappoint or make us proud; despite all the times they fall and the sins they have, no matter how unlovable they may seem at times, parents choose to keep on loving them. A parent's love perseveres even when they don't "feel" like it.

The verses above tell us that God is love. A love that is truly unconditional for every single one of us! It's not based on emotions or feelings and certainly as depraved humans we can't make him feel good or make ourselves more lovable to him. He just simply loves us because he is love. We were created to be in a love relationship with him. And he loved us so much "that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). There certainly aren't any conditions in those last two verses!. Think about it! He sent his Son to die, while we were still sinners. If that doesn't define unconditional love, I don't know what does. He didn't say, 'hey you, once you get your act together and quit sinning then I'll love you'. HE SIMPLY JUST CHOOSES TO LOVE US!

God is love. He defines love. He tells us through his word that love is sacrificial. It's unconditional. If we really desire to know true love, understand true love and to truly love others, then we must know God! Because love apart from God isn't love; it's just another word void of meaning.

Celebrate True Love today and everyday! Love God, love others. God has already shown us his vast, unconditional love through his Son Jesus Christ. Let's show him our love back! Write a Valentine's Day card to Him!

In Christ,
-Robert