God’s Perfect Love
Leading up to Christmas we are featuring a three part series Peace, Love, Joy. Today we are looking at God’s love for us.
God’s Love Letter
The whole of the Bible can be seen as a love letter to God’s people. There are too many times to mention here when God’s love for his people and his concern for our wellbeing is obvious. Perhaps you could do a personal study of this.
In addition the Bible displays the truth that God is Love. He isn’t just loving, but he is the very definition of love. He loves us because he created us. He loved us before we knew him.
My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because God is love – so you can’t know him if you don’t love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about – not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God. 1 John 4:8-10 MSG
A Picture of God’s Love
In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians he describes the kind of love that Christ followers should aim to display. In doing this, he paints a picture of God himself personified in Jesus, who we are called to imitate.
This passage is well known and has frequently been used as part of a traditional wedding ceremony.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
The passage is deserving of an in-depth study of its own. It’s also a useful way to check the state of our own hearts, asking ourselves questions using each of the definitions Paul uses:
Am I patient? Am I kind? Am I envious? Am I boastful? Am I proud? And so on.
God’s Love Lasts Forever
In some translations of 1 Corinthians 13:8 rather than it saying, ‘love never fails’, the verse reads ‘love will last forever’. In addition, in 1 Corinthians 13:13 (NLT) Paul tells us
Three things will last forever – faith, hope, and love – and the greatest of these is love.
Jesus who was the perfect depiction of love promises us
And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Matthew 28:20 (NLT)
How wonderful it is to be loved by God.
One Thing Remains
