Love

Do you know and believe the Love God has for us? Some people don’t know the love of God, they only know the God of wrath who punishes sins, others don’t even know this about God. And while there are some who have heard that God is love, they don’t know the love of God, and what’s more to the point, they don’t believe it either.

You see, if you really know the Love of God in Jesus Christ, you also believe, you believe because the love of God in Jesus Christ is transforming. For God creates faith, it is part of his great gift of love. God’s love transforms, it may accept us, just as we are, but it also knows what we are to be, and works to shape us, to that by grace through faith we might grow in the new life that is ours in Jesus Christ, and might grow into all that a child of God is, by the grace of God. For our life is not static, we are always in becoming, changing from one thing to another, being changed from sinner into saint, by the love of God in Jesus Christ.

If we love, because God first loved us, we also believe, because first, God believed in us, believed in us enough to send His only Son to suffer and die for our sins, that we might be born again, and that we might have forgiveness of sins and life everlasting. 

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.  God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us.

                                                                                   1 John 4:16-19