"He First Loved Us"

“We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19 ESV)

It is difficult for those who do not know the Lord to grasp the depth of His love for us. Sinless, perfection made in the flesh, willingly took on our sins and paid with His life so that we might be set free from the bondage of sin. (2 Corinthians 5:21) In today’s verse, John tells his followers that without the love of Christ, we could never truly love.

Without the love of God in our hearts, we focus on the wrong things: selfishness, immorality, greed, the pursuit of power, ego, and worldly things dominate our thoughts. While speaking to the Pharisees, Jesus said, “But I know that you do not have the love of God within you.” (John 5:43)

In this confrontation with the Pharisees, Jesus turned an essentially accusatory trial against Him into a trial and a guilty verdict against the Pharisees. Jesus came to divide, and while the ultimate example of love resided in Him, he was not a pacifist or a pushover. Jesus was confrontational, always seeking to condemn hypocrisy and bring forth the truth of God's Word.

When we know the Lord and have been converted, the love of God shines through us. We cannot help but strive to love as He did, all the while confronting the evil we face every day. We see the loving example set by our brothers and sisters, and it encourages us in our walk with Christ. Even in the death of our closest loved one, we are comforted by the fact that they knew Christ and had the assurance of the resurrection. This reassurance in times of loss is a source of comfort and strength for us.

I love this verse from 1 John. John reminds us that we are made again in Christ. The changing of the heart is a supernatural occurrence that cannot be explained except by the power of the Holy Spirit to change the heart. The love of God changes our hearts. So, how could we live any other way than by displaying that powerful, changing love? It is why people ask, “Why are so (fill in the blank) happy, peaceful, gentle, or loving?” It is because the love of Christ has changed our hearts. No longer are we living in a world with worldly desires. The Holy Spirit has supernaturally transformed the heart of stone, replacing it with a living heart filled with the love of Jesus. This joy of living in Christ fills us with a sense of contentment and peace.

Jesus is the example of true love. Having never known sin, He traded His righteousness, which He bestowed upon us, for our sins. This act of substitutionary atonement is the basis of our justification before God. Justification, in theological terms, means that we are declared righteous in God's sight because of Christ's sacrifice on our behalf. He took the punishment we deserved, so that we could be justified before God. Jesus did all of this out of love. His love for the Father who gave Him these people, and His love for His creation, that they might be reunited to God. In a trade, one always gets the better end of the deal. No deal could surpass the trade Christ made for you. Broken is the bondage of sin. We have received assurance of the love Christ has for us and our eternal salvation because of His finished work on the cross.

Do you know Jesus Christ as your Savior? Does the love of God live in you? Although you may not feel loved, you are indeed loved. You are loved by God, whose love never ends. If you do not know the love of Christ, seek Him now. He is your salvation, the only way to the Father is through Him. Come to Christ today; each breath is precious because the next may not come.

Grace and Peace.