Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. Psalm 107:1
I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness. I will build you up again and you will be rebuilt… Jeremiah 31:3-4
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.
We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. 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 him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. 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. If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother. 1 John 4:7-21
His love is completed when we love. What a thought… what a challenge. I suppose it’s a good thing that real love doesn’t depend on or come from me. Real love comes from God. And real love came to live among us so that we could learn how to do it. As I just finished a fantastic 5 days in Houston, I’m reminded in a tiny (but oh-so-significant) way of the awesome privilege we have of being love to others. My cup is overflowing with pancakes and old friends and hugs and deep conversations and snuggly babies and hot cups of coffee and … so much more. It’s difficult to think of a time in my life when I felt more loved – straight from the Father’s heart to your hands to me.
As we celebrate this week the ultimate gift of love, let’s look for ways to be love to others.
