Why Love?
Why do we need to love one another?
Is Christianity truly complete without love?
What does this love look like?
Is this love as we know it? The kind we express to our spouse or our kids?
Can we comprehend this love?
Why is this love so important?
“God so LOVED the world, that He sent His one and only Son into this world, that whosoever would believe and place their faith in Him, God would grant this His very nature.”
‘Wait a minute’ you say. ‘My Bible says the words ‘Eternal Life’ or ‘Everlasting Life’. Yes it probably does. The translators decided that was the most accurate definition based on the Greek manuscript. The Greek word used here is ‘Zoe’. This means basically everything God. His nature, eternal life, everlasting, etc.
God sent His Son to die for us to give away His nature to a people He created, who turned their back on Him. That’s a loaded statement if there ever was one. That’s also the epitome of His love toward us.
“Because of His great love for us, God who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ, even while we were still dead in our sins, for it is by grace that you have been saved.” Ephesians 2:5
“This is love. Not that we loved God, but that He loved us and gave His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” 1 John 4:10
“No greater love has a man than this; that he lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13
God’s love is our source and our strength. It’s not like man’s love though. It’s not about mushy, gushy fawning or human standards of moral ethics, which are always changing based upon culture and relativity. God’s love is pure and holy. It’s both caring and just.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways… As high as the heavens are above the Earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9
God’s love for humanity is what makes Christianity work. It’s the very thing which separates it from all religions. It’s the story of an all holy God, reaching down to a sinful, unloving humanity, to restore that humanity back to His love for us. That love is what put Jesus on a cross in the hands of hell for 3 days and nights. That love is what makes us alive by our faith in the finished work of Jesus. That love is what drives the church to reach the world with the message of reconciliation and redemption.
As we love the world, we show them Jesus. As we lay down our lives, we show them Jesus.
Let us love, that the world may come to know who it is that truly loves them.
Blessings.
Link to original article on MikeWaldron.org