The Love of God

View daily reading plan: 1 John 4.7-12

 “Love is of God”; “God is love”. Having stated that “God is light” (1.5), an indication of His essential purity and holiness, there is this further revelation of God’s character - “God is love”. He is fundamentally kind, tender and compassionate, and these qualities are also in those who are “born of God”; they are absent from those who “(know) not God”.

God expressed His love “toward us” by sending “his only begotten Son“ an indication of the immense cost to God. The One who was sent was absolutely unique, He was His “darling” (Ps 22.20); what boundless love! He was sent; “that we might live through him” (v.9); “to be the propitiation for our sins” (v.10); “to be the Saviour of the world” (v.14). His love was uninvited and undeserved; “not that we loved God” and yet He loved us.

The fact that “God so loved us”, leaves us with no option but “to love one another”. Do we? Believers exhibiting true affection are giving men a little glimpse of the character of their Father, the invisible God (v.12). It is an expression of the divine within us, and “his love is perfected in us”. God had an aim in loving us. That goal has been realised when, as His children, we love one another.

Sunday, 12 May, 2024