WELS: Today's Devotion - What is love? – October 21, 2016

View this email in your browser What is love? – October 21, 2016 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 1 John 3:16 What is love? Daily Devotion – October 21, 2016 Devotion based on 1 John 3:16 See series: Devotions If you asked ten different people what love is you may very well receive ten different answers. Ask a three-year-old and his answer may be a simple "mom." Ask a psychologist and you may have to settle in for a long and complicated response. The answer given by a fifteen-year-old girl will likely be very different than the one given by a sixty-year-old man who has been married to the same woman for 42 years. Even though these answers may all be different, they likely all revolve around the same thing—emotion. Describing what love is usually involves describing how a person makes you feel or the committed feelings you have about a certain person. God doesn't talk about emotion when he describes love in his Word. He talks about action. "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us." Love is defined by the greatest act of self-sacrifice ever made. God's own Son gave up his life for you. He didn't do it because of the way you made him feel. He did it because he knew it was the only way for you to live with him forever. He shed his blood not because he saw some great potential within you. He shed his blood because the sin within you needed to be washed away. Jesus Christ laid down his life for you because his desire to save you eternally was far greater than any desire to preserve his own life. That selfless, self-sacrificing action is the very definition of love. Now that you know what love is, go and love others. Prayer: Lord Jesus, my Savior, thank you for loving me by dying in my place. Forgive me for the many times love has been all about me and how I feel. Help me to love others the way that you have loved me—through actions that put their needs first. In your holy name I ask it. Amen. The devotions on Thursdays and Fridays in September, October, and November are based on the book of 1 John. Daily Devotions are brought to you by WELS and www.WhatAboutJesus.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 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. Print PDF Share Tweet Devotions | Subscription Help   Copyright © 2016 Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in at our website or subscribed to one of our newsletters. Unsubscribe  - CHANGE EMAIL SETTINGS Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod N16W23377 Stone Ridge Drive Waukesha, WI 53188 Add us to your address book Note: Recipients of this forwarded e-mail will be able to access your subscription preferences.