Determine to Love
woman who is living through the ravages of cancer needs God’s love. That couple facing debts they don’t seem able to pay needs God’s love. The woman who now faces life without the man who has been her companion for decades needs God’s love. That pastor carrying a heavy weight of spiritual responsibility needs God’s love. That university student facing the spiritual warfare of college needs God’s love. We could multiply example after example. There is no location, situation, or relationship this side of heaven where this love is not needed. This love is not about liking people. It is not about romantic affection. It is something more than cultural niceness. It is deeper than being respectful or mannerly. This love finds its motivation, hope, and direction at the cross of Jesus Christ. The Shape of Love What is the nature and shape of the love to which each of us has been called? Hear the words of 1 John 4:9–11. 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 ought to love one another. What is our motivation to love others? We love others because we have been so magnificently loved. Jesus said, when the woman washed his feet with expensive perfume and dried them with her hair, “The one who is forgiven much, loves much.” We live with a deep sense of privilege that, quite apart from anything we could earn, deserve, or achieve, our lives have been transformed by the love of God. He has every reason to turn his back on us. He has every reason to turn his anger against us. He has every reason to judge us unworthy, but he does not. He first turns to us so that we would then turn to him. So, being filled with the awe of this love, we are excited about sharing this love with others.
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