Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God [John 3:16]; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. (I John 4:7-8)
God is love, and "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:24) We can't see God with our natural eyes, because as He told Moses, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.” (Exodus 33:20) But the evidence that He is real is throughout creation, and was manifested in the person of Christ Jesus. 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 [John16:27]. 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 [Romans 5:8]. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another [John 15:13]. (I John 4:9-11)
No one has seen God at any time [John 1:18]. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us [John 17:23]. By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit [John 16:13]. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world [John 1:29]. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him [John 15:9]. (I John 4:12-15)
Christ Jesus was the perfect manifestation of God being love and of God's love towards us all! Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them,... (II Corinthians 5:18-19) "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." (John 3:17) The definition of love is clear that love is an action word, not merely feelings, like the world tends to portray and misuse. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. (I Corinthians 13:4-8)
Christ Jesus life and death demonstrated that kind of love perfectly! Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world [Acts 13:46]. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love [II Timothy 1:7]. We love Him because He first loved us. (I John 4:16-19) God does not desire to punish us and destroy us, for there is no fear in love. The Lord is ...longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. (II Peter 3:9) ... Who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (I Timothy 2:4)
God, the Creator of All things, feels this way about all of us, True Love! That should cause us to be humbled and really see how much we mean to Him! If it doesn't, we need to keep reading it over and over again, until we can somewhat grasp God's love for us. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:37-39)
God loves All of us so much, but we won't reap the benefits eternally if we don't believe in Jesus Christ! For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16) Once we accept God's Love towards us, His Son, Christ Jesus, then we can demonstrate that same love towards others. And the second [commandment] is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ (Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31) If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also. (I John 4:20-21)
God loved us first, and He proved it by sending His Son to die in our place, for our sins! God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),... (Ephesians 2:4-5) We must love Him, and we show it by how we treat each other; and then we must prove it by obeying His Word. Jesus said, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35) AMEN!
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