God Is Love – Part 1
“God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.” 1 John 4:16b NIV
In light of recent events in this country, I hear a lot of people talking about “love.” The phrase, “Love wins” is being thrown around like a jolly beach ball. But “love” isn’t something we can throw around like a lightweight inflatable idea to match our cultural colorful ideals as we drift off to sleep, lulled by the waves of every passing fad.
The basic problem is that we have to first define the word love. The word love is not synonymous with the word tolerance. The word love was defined by the God who defined all words before the world was created.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made” (John 1:1-3 NIV).
Christians need to make sure that we are basing our definitions of words on what the Word says. And when those definitions are opposed to what society says, we fall back on the Word of God, not Urban Dictionary.
My husband put it this way: “If God is love, then His ways are love; His word is love; His morals are love.”
In other words, if a person does not know God, how can that person know or understand love? If we do know God, here is what our love looks like:
“This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out His commands. In fact, this is love for God: to keep His commands, and His commands are not burdensome” (1 John 5:2-3).
There are some who like to say, “But Jesus hung out with sinners! Prostitutes! Tax collectors!” And while this is true, what was the point of Jesus’ interactions with all of these people? To save them, not to “tolerate” their sin. In fact, the very first words of Jesus’ preaching ministry were quite simple: “Repent. For the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matthew 4:17).
When Jesus spent time with sinners, they were convicted of their sin, and their encounters with Jesus brought them deep healing, conviction, and repentance. Jesus was merciful, even with the woman caught in adultery, but He never said, “I am okay with your sinful lifestyle.” No, His words were, “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more” (John 8:11).
Dear Heavenly Father, thank You that YOU ARE love. We don’t have to define it for ourselves. You have already defined it for us. When the world around us brings confusion by defining things differently than You do, please remind us of Your truth. Your word is truth. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
This is ‘powerfully’ written and expressed exactly as God would want it to be. Obviously, you were inspired by The Holy Spirit when you penned this, and I so appreciate the straight-forward application of each point. It took me a long time, however, His Action and His Words, “Go and sin no more”, have been my guide for many, many years, and still are to this day. God Bless You all.