LOVE FORGIVESSample

In Day one, we learned that God is Love. It’s not an action of God. It’s who He is. Now let’s dig in. I want us to look at what God says love should look like in our lives. 

Let’s talk about what the Bible says we as children of God, believers, Christians, whatever term you may use to identify your relationship with God. This is how God said you can recognize His Children!

1 John 4:7-21 - Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 

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. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so, we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.  This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

We love because he first loved us. 

Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister. (Emphasis added)

WOW. I don’t know about you, but this is very convicting to me!

“WHOEVER DOES NOT LOVE DOES NOT KNOW GOD??”

Nowhere does this say, ‘love when it’s convenient or comfortable’ or ‘you don’t have to love everyone, just those that are like you.’

Prepare yourself, because this may sting a little … If we say we have asked God into our lives, yet we are rude, mean, or angry all the time, what actually separates us from people who don’t know God? Why would anyone want to know God if people who represent Him are treating them like everyone else? 

Let’s look at our example again:

“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. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (Emphasis added)

Our example of loving others is God giving up His son for us. If you remember from yesterday, God didn’t wait until we had things together. He loved and forgave us “just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. “

How well are we loving the people around us?

How well are you loving the person who drives you crazy?

Yesterday and today's readings are setting up our understanding of what or who love is and what love should look like in our lives. Over the next 5 days, I will unpack my story of how love destroyed my fear and helped me forgive the person who left the deepest wound of my life.