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.
1 John 4:7-12
This is Love
Hand in hand they walked down the hall. It was a slow walk because their legs of eighty-plus years just didn't quite move the way they used to. When they talked, it was a little bit loud because their hearing wasn't that great either.
It was a beautiful sight for a young married couple to behold. I remember smiling along with my wife and saying, "That is awesome love! That's the kind of love I want us to have 60 years from now."
Young couples often look to those who have been married for a number of years to learn about the kind of love they are to have for one another in order to make their marriage last. As Christians we are not only to love our husband and wife, our parents and our children, we are to love everyone. Where do we look to find out what this love is to be like?
The apostle John tells us, "God is love." In other words, if you want to know what true love is look no farther than God himself and what he has done.
God sent his one and only Son into the world knowing everything that would happen to him here. He sent him to be the sacrifice that would pay the price for each and every one of our sins. He sent him to die so that you and I might live.
The love that God has for you and me is selfless and sacrificial. His biggest concern was not his feelings. (Think how it must have wounded his heart to see his Son suffer.) His biggest concern was you and making sure that you would be able to pass through the gates of heaven without any of the sins that would keep you out. He was willing to sacrifice his own Son in order to make that happen.
That is love! Dear friends, since God so loved you, love one another with a love that is selfless and willing to make sacrifices in order to provide for what others need.
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, you have provided us with the greatest example of love—the sacrifice of your one and only Son. Forgive me for the times love has been all about me and how I feel. Help me to be willing to sacrifice for the needs of others as you sacrificed your Son for me. In his name I ask it. Amen.
The devotions on Thursdays and Fridays in September, October, and November are based on the book of 1 John.
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
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