Friday, November 17, 2023
Love is a complicated word. It can be used to describe how I feel about my husband and children and also about how I feel about coffee. If asked to define the word, most claim that love is a feeling of affection you have for someone or something. It looks different based on what you are “loving” at the moment.
When asked what it means to love another person, most will say love means seeing a person and embracing “who they are, no matter what.” However, when we look at what love is in the Bible, we see something very different.
1 John 4:9-11 NIV
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. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
John clearly defines love as initiated by God. We did nothing to deserve or earn this love. Jesus came to earth and sacrificed his life in spite of humanity’s constant rejection of God’s love. We see throughout the Old Testament, God faithfully pursuing his people even though they were constantly unfaithful to him. Then he graciously took on human form to show us his true love. He showed that love is so much more than a feeling.
Love is a verb.
Love is an action, not merely a feeling. We show people we love them when we love them like Jesus did.
Love required Jesus to bear a punishment he did not deserve.
2 Corinthians 5:21
For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
Love required the sinless one to take on the sins of all of humanity. Our sin could not be shrugged off. It required a perfect sacrifice for atonement. Thus Jesus, God himself, came down to earth and bore our punishment. Through this, he showed us what it means to love.
It is only proper that our response should be to humble ourselves before him, accept his gift of love, and share it with others.
Questions:
What is your definition of love? Does it fit with how the Bible defines love?
Next Steps:
When you encounter difficult people in your week ahead, think about how Jesus loved selflessly. Write out 1 John 4:9-11 and put it in a place where you will see it regularly. Try memorizing it so you always have it with you.
Prayer:
Jesus, thank you for coming into our world and showing us what love looks like. Thank you for bearing the consequences of our sin so we don’t have to. Thank you for loving us even though we repeatedly reject you. Help me to respond to your gift by loving those around me selflessly. Help me to continue to become more like you, thus embracing the love you have shown me. Amen.
Series Theme Verse:
Romans 1:20
For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.
This post was written by Julie Mabus, a regular contributor to the LivingItOut Devotional.