Think about a time when you felt most loved. What made that moment so special to you?
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
John 3:16-19
Love is the supreme virtue. It’s the only virtue that God explicitly uses to define himself (1 John 4:8). Unlike our fickle, fleeting, and feelings-oriented love, God’s love is an unwavering, covenantal love, and his divine love is behind every aspect of redemptive history:
Creation (Ephesians 3:9, 19), predestination (Ephesians 1:5), incarnation (1 John 4:9), crucifixion (John 15:13), resurrection (John 10:17), salvation (Romans 5:8), redemption (Revelation 1:5), adoption (Ephesians 1:5), revelation (John 14:21), inhabitation (John 14:23), preservation (Romans 8:39), unification (Colossians 3:14), protection (1 Thessalonians 5:8), sanctification (Hebrews 12:6), and glorification (2 Timothy 4:8).
Indeed, love is what life is all about! It’s the main thing that God wants to perfect in us, as it says in 1 John 4:16-17, “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us…” Loving God and loving our fellow man is the sum of all God’s commandments. It is also a fruit of the Holy Spirit, which means that we cannot accomplish it without him.
Reflect
Love is a dwindling commodity. As time goes on, the Bible says that the love of most people is going to grow cold (Matthew 24:12). Would you say that your love is on an increasing or decreasing trajectory? Why?
Romans 5:5 says that “God’s love has been poured (literally flooded) into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” When we don’t feel that, what should we do? What can make God’s immeasurable love tangible to us, 2000 years after Christ’s ultimate expression of that love?
In Revelation 2:4, Jesus reproves the church of Ephesus for having lost their first love (meaning Christ). When your love for God is waning, what can you do to rekindle it? What has helped in the past?
