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We need not look far to find portraits of love in movies, television shows, books, music, and visual art. The prospect of instruction on true love, however, is far more scarce. The media have distorted and disfigured our expectations of being loved and the ways we attempt to love others. The message of our reading today offers a radical alternative and reveals something extraordinary that goes beyond what we have learned about God’s love thus far.
“God is love” (v. 8). We have seen that God loves, but this phrase is saying more than that. One New Testament professor asserts that claiming “God is love” is to insist that love is not simply one of God’s attributes, but that all of God’s activity is loving.
Verses 9 and 10 point toward Christ as God’s ultimate self-disclosure of love. This demonstration of God’s love teaches us what true love is. First, it is sacrificial: God sent His only Son into the world that was hostile toward Him. Second, love is life-giving: verse 9 says “that we might live through him.” Third, love originates in God. He loved us first, we love as a response to His love (v. 10). Fourth, God’s love is redemptive: Jesus as the atoning sacrifice for our sins makes possible our reconciled relationship with God. Lastly, today’s passage confirms that love is not simply an attitude or warm, fuzzy feeling. Love is active and practical, and it is defined in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Take a look at the verses before and after today’s text. God is the source of all love, and as we enter into a loving relationship with Him through Jesus, His love transforms us to embody His love toward one another. Notice the phrase, “everyone who loves has been born of God” (v. 7). That is, children of God ought to bear the image of their heavenly Father in love. In summary, God is love, and therefore He defines love. He loves us in Christ, and in turn, we are empowered to love like He does.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
In our own strength we are incapable of loving like God. In fact, we tend toward the opposite: “love” that is selfish, life-thwarting, and destructive. As we absorb God’s love, it flows out of us. We soak up God’s love as we cultivate our relationship with Him through prayer, study of His Word, fellowship, and outreach. If one of these areas of spiritual sustenance is depleted, prayerfully consider ways it may be enhanced. One suggestion is to work through The Good and Beautiful Life by James Bryan Smith.
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