God Is Love

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God: and every one who loves is born of God, and knows God. He who does not love does not know God; for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” –I John 4:7-11 (NKJV).

“God is love.”

What a concept to latch onto, to try to comprehend, to seek to put into practice!

Since my very earliest remembrances, I was taught “God is love.” In the little “card class” behind green curtains drawn to separate the sanctuary of my country church, Choestoe, into classroom space, I was taught “God is love.” I have been trying all my life to understand what this profound statement means. I have yet to grasp all its truth, its dimension, its breadth and depth and height. I pray I will keep seeking to learn more and more that “God is love.” But thank God, I’ve learned enough to know and experience the love of God which surpasses all comprehension.

John gives us a marvelous insight into how God is love. This love was (and is) personified and manifested in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son. Through Christ, and our absolute belief in Him and acceptance of his propitiation (the act of gaining or regaining the good favor of; atonement; sacrifice) for our sins, we can see God’s love and know God’s love. Someone has well said, while demonstrating with outstreatched arms, “God loved me so much that He sent Jesus, his only Son, to die for me on the cross.” God is love; Jesus is love. I am God’s child, the recipient of His love, because of Who Jesus is and what Jesus did to show God’s love—to show Christ’s own love, for He is God in human flesh, dying for even me! Yes, indeed, God is love!

“Love one another, for love is of God.” Love begets love. As God loves us, then we love each other.We love without asking for love in return. It is wonderful when we receive love in return for loving others, but even without reciprocation, our love-intention from God’s heart for us is that we love one another.

Love is deep, from the well-springs of the soul.

Love is wide, like beginning where I am and circling the earth and coming back to my same position, on and on and on again. Not “world without end,” but “love without end.”

Love is high. Imagine going into space, to the moon—and there’s still space beyond to explore stretching to infinity. With this analogy, we begin to get a small inkling of God’s love. Without end.

We learn the love of God by sincerely loving one another. If we do not love one another, we do not love God. And may we never forget and keep seeking to comprehend, what we learned as a child: “God is love.”

Prayer: Today, may my love for God and love for others grow deeper.

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Monday, February 8, 2010