God is love, indeed, no one could understand the concept better than Him. He, through Jesus, gave us a prototype. Jesus is every believer’s role model, so our lives must be modeled after him. He showed us how to love and now we have the right to do so. We love because He first loved us.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
1 John 4:11 KJV
If God could love us in our filth, so much that He would send His Son to die for us, then it becomes crucial that we show this love to others. Freely we have received, freely we should give (Matt. 10:8b). Some bible versions say “we love Him, because He first loved us ”. Others say we love (speaking generally) because He first loved us. Whichever the case, the two are not different, as we learn from earlier verses of 1 John 4. Your love for God will definitely be seen in your love for others.
Allow God’s love transform you.
We love because He first loved us tells us that His love transforms us. God’s definition of love is to love whether or not the person loves us back. His definition of love is not give and take. It is not transactional. It is loving even those that hate you.
Normally, this is impossible. How can I pray for my enemies? How can I love someone that clearly hates me? It is truly difficult. But the love of God, when given sufficient opportunity to flourish, transforms a man. It takes you from that hateful or love deficient person to someone who loves like Christ. Look at what it did for Apostle Paul. He moved from someone who aided murder to someone who said without love he is nothing (Acts 8:1; 1 Cor. 13:2). He became so full of that love that he could gladly spend and be spent for the sake of others. (2 Cor. 12:15)
In essence, we are able to love because He first loved us.
Allow God’s love to empower you.
God’s love transforming gives us the potential to give that love. But more than having the potential, we need the zest to give it. We need the empowerment. God’s love that we have received empowers us to love others.
We are strengthened to love because He first loved us.
How easy is it to get slapped for someone else’s wrong? Or to get punished in place of someone else? Not easy at all. Now picture the difficulty that must have come with dying for a bunch of people who do not even regard you. That’s what Jesus did for us. He was beaten, bruised, embarrassed and killed for our sakes even when we were still sinners. I have always wondered, how and why. The answer to both questions is love. Jesus makes us know that His sacrifice was being powered by love. He says in John 15:13 that “greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends”.
His love empowered Him to do all He did, as was the case for the Apostles too. They could do all they did, endure all they endured for the sake of Christ and their love for Him and for the sake of the gospel and their love for those who must receive it. (2 Cor. 1:6; 2 Cor. 11:11)
Allow God’s love flow out of you.
God’s love was poured into us not for us to hold it all in but to share it with others. The love we first received must be given back. We must love –or rather, we should love because He first loved us.
God has not created us to be reservoirs but to be streams. If there’s one thing you should always give back to society, it is God’s love that you have received. And this is so important because we are told in 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 that even if we dedicate ourselves to service and spiritual activities, it is still useless without love. Jesus’ sacrifice was borne out of love. I dare say, that’s what makes it so powerful. As a Christian you must cultivate the habit of freely I have received, freely I give.
When a Christian is required to show this love, to love in the model of Christ they will say “I am not Christ. I can’t accept that or do that because I am not Jesus Christ”. News flash, you can. The love you have received is more than enough ability. The love we have received must be revealed. Remember, our license to say we know God and abide in Him is our submissiveness to love. (1 John 4:7-8)
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.
1 John 3:16 NIV
The greatest proof of God’s love for us is sending Jesus to die on the cross. You cannot give what you don’t have. The key to having God’s love is simply to accept it. You can do that by saying this prayer: Dear Jesus, I thank you for loving me so dearly. Today I accept your love and I receive the grace to share this love to others. Amen.
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