This is Love
Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love – not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. (1 John 4:7-12)
This week we lit the fourth candle of the Advent season. We’ve lit the candle of Hope, the candle of Peace, the candle of Joy, and this week the candle of Love. In the English language we use the word love to express many different things. It’s not one specific thing that we ascribe the word love to. For example, I love my favorite sports teams. I love my family. I love my friends. I love sweets (though of all my loves, this is the worst for me.)
Jesus told us to love. His greatest commandment to us is to love. But this love is different than the loves I’ve described of my own. How so? Well, if we look to scripture, we can read many acts of sacrifice and trust. One doesn’t have to go too far into the Word to find a love reference. God put Abraham’s love to the test by asking Abraham to make a sacrifice of his son. Something quite unthinkable. “Take your son, your only son – yes, Isaac, who you love so much – and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.” (Gen. 22:2.) Well, we know that Abraham passed the test. But the point here is that love is not just a feeling. Love is an act, a sacrifice that we would make as a gift. A gift we give to another who means so much to us.
The verses today show that it is God who initiates love. His love is not a passive love. It is His action that helps us overcome what we can’t on our own – sin. Our redemption is based on His action, not our own. Look at some of the relationships God had in scripture with a couple of other key figures like Noah, or Moses – who initiated the relationship in these stories? It was God. Then move forward in scripture to Jesus and the Nativity. It was God’s action; His love sent us a Son to do the sacrificial work on the cross. And what makes this demonstration of love so grand and frankly baffling is that God didn’t have to do this. He does it willingly, taking the initiative to love first – for all people, even those who may not love Him back.
Once again at Christmastime we are encouraged to go to Bethlehem in our hearts and allow the Christmas story to fill our spirits once again with hope, peace, joy, and love.
Lord, thank You for the love You’ve shown for me. Thank You for Your Son and my Savior who entered this world only to go the cross and die for my sins. Your love has no end and I pray Your help to show my family, friends, neighbors, colleagues, and even strangers the love You reflect through me. In Your Son’s holy and precious name, AMEN.