We often test human love for each other by keeping a mental record with a scorecard! We keep score of all the good things others have done to make us happy and feel good as a measurement of their love for us. We also keep a record, in detail, of all they said, did, or didn’t do to make us angry and sad. We automatically measure love as deeds done. But is this real love?
Most times, we think God plays these human games of love as He relates to us. But He does not. He just loves—no matter what. And what makes us think, as infallible humans that we could ever do enough? We thank God that His love is not based on our sacrifices of good deeds to earn his love. That’s not how God thinks.
John, “the beloved disciple” explains God’s real love in his letters to all believers, gathered in groups called churches. God’s love goes deeper and is complete—more than human love can be that changes as often as feeling change on any given day. God IS love. God’s love is real, everlasting, and never changes. His love does not depend on what we do for Him—He just loves us. Even when we don’t “feel it”, God loves us. When we are wandering and lost, God loves us as He waits for us to come near and love Him back! God’s is faithful even when we are not. This is the love of God in nutshell:
“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. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:16-17.
“God demonstrates his own love for us in this: “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8
1 John 3, The Message
What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it—we’re called children of God! That’s who we really are. But that’s also why the world doesn’t recognize us or take us seriously, because it has no idea who he is or what he’s up to.
2-3 But friends, that’s exactly who we are: children of God. And that’s only the beginning. Who knows how we’ll end up! What we know is that when Christ is openly revealed, we’ll see him—and in seeing him, become like him. All of us who look forward to his Coming stay ready, with the glistening purity of Jesus’ life as a model for our own.
4-6 All who indulge in a sinful life are dangerously lawless, for sin is a major disruption of God’s order. Surely you know that Christ showed up in order to get rid of sin. There is no sin in him, and sin is not part of his program. No one who lives deeply in Christ makes a practice of sin. None of those who do practice sin have taken a good look at Christ. They’ve got him all backward.
7-8 So, my dear children, don’t let anyone divert you from the truth. It’s the person who acts right who is right, just as we see it lived out in our righteous Messiah. Those who make a practice of sin are straight from the Devil, the pioneer in the practice of sin. The Son of God entered the scene to abolish the Devil’s ways.
9-10 People conceived and brought into life by God don’t make a practice of sin. How could they? God’s seed is deep within them, making them who they are. It’s not in the nature of the God-born to practice and parade sin. Here’s how you tell the difference between God’s children and the Devil’s children: The one who won’t practice righteous ways isn’t from God, nor is the one who won’t love brother or sister. A simple test.
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11 For this is the original message we heard: We should love each other.
12-13 We must not be like Cain, who joined the Evil One and then killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because he was deep in the practice of evil, while the acts of his brother were righteous. So don’t be surprised, friends, when the world hates you. This has been going on a long time.
14-15 The way we know we’ve been transferred from death to life is that we love our brothers and sisters. Anyone who doesn’t love is as good as dead. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know very well that eternal life and murder don’t go together.
16-17 This is how we’ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears. And you made it disappear.
When We Practice Real Love
18-20 My dear children, let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice real love. This is the only way we’ll know we’re living truly, living in God’s reality. It’s also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves.
21-24 And friends, once that’s taken care of and we’re no longer accusing or condemning ourselves, we’re bold and free before God! We’re able to stretch our hands out and receive what we asked for because we’re doing what he said, doing what pleases him. Again, this is God’s command: to believe in his personally named Son, Jesus Christ. He told us to love each other, in line with the original command. As we keep his commands, we live deeply and surely in him, and he lives in us. And this is how we experience his deep and abiding presence in us: by the Spirit he gave us.
WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?
GOD IS LOVE—REAL LOVE.
We love like God when we love each other as if our lives depended on it—because real life depends on loving each other without keep a tab or record of what others do for us! We “make love a bad name” in the lives of those seeking real love!
Paul wrote the crazy, confused about love Corinthians of God’s real love in detail:
“If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13, NIV
I’ve read the entire Bible many times. I have learned that God simply wants us to love Him back with the same passion and intensity that He loves us. Jesus reminded Peter of real love when He questioned Peter’s love for Him after denying Jesus. Three times of denial prompted three questions real love as Jesus forgave Peter and reinstated him for his mission;
“Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”
“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”
16 Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”
17 The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.” John 21:15-17, NIV
He might be asking you and I today, “Do you love Me?”
Our obedience to God is a way to express our real love for God.
Samuel, God’s chosen priest, explains to a confused human king—
“But Samuel replied, “What pleases the Lord more? Burnt offerings and sacrifices, or obeying the Lord? It is better to obey than to offer a sacrifice. It is better to do what he says than to offer the fat of rams.” 1 Samuel 15:22, NIRV
The measure of our love for God is expressing that love by doing what God says. And what does He say first and most often? 1. Love God with all your heart, mind, and soul. 2. Love others like I have loved you. According to Jesus, the Perfect Model of Obedience and Example of God’s Love, tells us that these are the top two commandments to follow as we love God back. All others stem from these top two!
John further solidifies this truth with, “We love because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:17. More about God’s real love tomorrow! John is not finished with us yet as we embody the love of God in us!
Lord,
Your love is amazing, deep and wide, strong and relentless. We sing of your love but do we embody your real love that drives us to do what you say— “love each other as I have loved you”? May your love fill my heart, transform my mind, and restore my faith, hope, and love for you. May the greatest of these be your real love in my heart for all people.
In Jesus Name, Amen
Daily Manna (Coffee with Jesus) 