“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! “
1 John 3:1a
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God is love, which is to say that God is perfect love. Perfect love is beyond our comprehension, but the Scriptures give us pictures of perfect love.
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8
Perfect love loves the unlovely. God’s perfect love provided a Savior, Jesus Christ. God’s perfect love took the first step so that we who were far from Him, living for ourselves with no knowledge of God or interest in His ways, could know the living God and enter into fellowship with Him. Because of His love God relentlessly pursues us.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16
Perfect love will sacrifice that which is most precious on behalf of the one loved. God gave His only Son to show us His love. Jesus paid for our sins, so that we could be saved from death and receive eternal life. God’s plan sent Jesus into this world to be our Savior. How can a person like you or me be saved? It is through trusting in God’s love, demonstrated in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin.
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has
been born of God and knows God.
1 John 4:7
Perfect love inspires love in the hearts of its recipients. When an individual truly experiences the love of God, the response is love for God and love for others. How else could we know love, except that we have received it? We are not lovers by nature, but we are loved by God. To know the love of God is to be freed from the bondage of our selfishness to serve one another in love.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
Romans 8:35
Perfect love never fails and never gives up. We can become discouraged and faint-hearted, but God is faithful to His character of love. His love persists through the circumstances and challenges of our lives. His love is constant and unchanging. It is always at work in our inner person to conform us more and more to the image of His Son Jesus Christ.
Questions for reflection and discussion:
- How did the love of God become evident to you initially?
- In light of the sacrificial love of Christ for you, what investments of time and talents are you making on behalf of His kingdom?
- Where are you serving others in love?
Church Reading Plan: Jeremiah 4; Matthew 18