Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. 1 John 4:11

Devotion

God’s love goes beyond human rationale. It is unexplainable. His love for us is so immense and beautiful it is above our natural comprehension. It is especially difficult to comprehend God’s love when we live in a society that promotes egocentrism and a constant elevation of the self. 

How did God show us his love? Through sacrifice. 

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

God gave us his one and only son. Jesus laid down his life for us. He paid the price for our sins. He certainly was not obliged to complete this great act of love. The Father could have turned his face away and left us to die in our sins and trespasses … but he did not. Why? Because of his nature. 

The Bible says that God is love. Think about that: God. Is. Love. Whoever has God has love (1 John 4:16). True love is selfless. True love tells us to lay down our lives for others. That’s what Jesus did for you and for me. 

It is impossible to love others the way God commands us to if we do not live in love, if we do not live in him, because he is love. When we truly abide in God and he in us, we are abiding in love. There is no way you and I can truly love others without God. 

Sure, perhaps we can appreciate our friends and family members, care for others to some extent, wish our neighbors well, but without God it is impossible to truly love. We are able to lay down our life for others when we live in Christ. The Bible tells us, “We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or a sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen” (1 John 4:19-20). This means we cannot hate people and claim to love God at the same time. If God truly abides in us, then the fruit abiding in him will show through how we love others. 

The good news is that we are capable of loving others, just as Jesus commands us to, by abiding in him. Jesus says, “If you remain in me, and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5) Although the world may have multiple definitions of love, you and I, as believers of Jesus Christ, understand that apart from God love does not exist. This is why loving as Jesus commands us to love may be difficult to understand, especially to those who have not surrendered their life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. 

Our Lord instructed us very clearly by saying, “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44) and “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” (Luke 6:27-28). This is the sacrificial element that exists only in the true love that God has shown to us. Now, it’s our turn to show his love to the whole world. This is how the world will know that we are Jesus’ disciples. 

PRAYER

As Paul prayed for the church, I invite you to join in this prayer today:
I pray that the Father may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, and to know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:16-19).

Yesi Castillo
Worship Leader - Community Center

Resources:

Listen to Heart Beat from the Settle Here album by Crossings Worship Collective.

Watch Wearing the Clothes of Jesus Pastor Blake Bastin.

Read John 15, 1 John 3, and 1 John 4.

Explore other devotions like this one any time at crossings.church/devotions .