Loved
“Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” 1 John 4:11
The greatest love story ever told is God's Agape love for His sinner children! He sent his One and only Son to die for us. He also told us that there is no greater love than laying down one's life for a friend. I don’t believe that’s a literal "throw yourself in front of a speeding car or in front of a bullet" instruction, rather it’s more of an encouragement to put aside your wants, your needs, and your desires to do something for someone else. Humble yourself and serve your family and friends, putting their needs above and before your own. One of God’s identifying factors is His love for His children. It is His hope that we can love one another in this same way, with forgiveness, acceptance, and selflessness, and be passionately committed to the well-being of others, so more people will want to have a relationship with Him. Who has God placed in your life to show His Agape love to?
“The light of God’s love shined within us when he sent his matchless Son into the world so that we might live through him. This is love: He loved us long before we loved him. It was his love, not ours. He proved it by sending his Son to be the pleasing sacrificial offering to take away our sins.” 1 John 4:9-10 TPT
In Ephesians 3:16-21 Paul says; I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Paul wants the knowledge of God’s love to be a deeply rooted truth in all our souls. He wants us all to know that God’s love is wide enough to surround everyone in a big bear hug, long enough to stretch from the beginning to the end of time and into infinity and beyond, deep enough to reach the worst of sinners, and high enough to carry us into heaven. When we grasp this level, this intensity of God’s love for us, how can we deny loving others with the same self-sacrificing, all-encompassing Agape love.
“We love because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19
God’s love isn’t sentimental, self-seeking, or selfish; it is grounded, unconditional, and active. God gives His love, expecting nothing more than for you to love Him and His people with all you have.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is LOVE. 1 Corinthians 13:13
His love isn’t earned; we can’t work for it, and we certainly can buy it! He freely and graciously loves us to overflow. Meditate on that for a moment. Let His Free, Gracious, Overflowing Love wash over you; breathe it in. Rest in it. It can fill you up to the point where it spills over onto others, like an overfilled, refreshing glass of water.
God’s love is unmistakable, unconditional, and unending. Go out into the world and love the special people He has placed in your life today with selfless, sacrificial, wide-open LOVE.
“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 4:12
Thank you, Father, for loving us and showing us what love truly looks like by sending your Son to die for us. Help us to truly grasp how much you love us. Help us understand how wide, how long, how high, and how deep your love is for us. We are ever so grateful for how your love changes everything for the better, especially us. God, make us vessels of your love, spreading your love wherever we go, loving the people you have placed in our lives with the same Agape love you have shown us. Amen