Scripture: 1 John 4:7-12 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
Devotion: If there is one common theme throughout the Bible regarding God’s love, it is that He showed His love to us by sending Jesus. “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him” (1 John 4:9). Through sending His Son, Jesus, we are introduced to the perfect love and eternal life that the Father and the Son have always enjoyed together. Those who lived at the same time as Him witnessed this love and what it looks like lived out. Those of us after His time on earth get to witness and experience that love through the Holy Scripture.
Whenever we question God’s love for us, and if we are honest, that can be quite often, we can be reminded of the love that He showed us by sending His Son. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit had enjoyed perfect love and fellowship for all of time. And we were brought in on that because of God’s great love for us. We experience that very love through the life of Jesus. In both how He taught us about truth, grace, and love and how He laid down His life, our Father sent us the ultimate picture of love perfected. Let’s live our life in light of that love today.
Reflect:
- Have you ever thought about how God brought us into perfect love by sending Jesus? Knowing that we get to experience that perfect love, reflect on what that reveals about our Father.
