Respond

March 18, 2022

“We love because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:19

The New Testament is full of references to God’s love for us. John 3:16 is perhaps the most popular, and tells us that God loved us so much that He sent His Son to die for our sins. Romans 5:8 tells us that God showed His love by Christ dying while we were still sinners. Ephesians 2:4-5, 1 John 3:1, Romans 8:35-39, and Ephesians 3:17-19 are just a few more examples of New Testament passages that explain, in various ways, the great love of God for His children.

You may be surprised to learn, however, that there are very few New Testament references about our love for God. It makes sense, actually, because as 1 John 4:19 teaches, our love for God is responsive. We only love God because He first loved us. He initiates, we respond. Because of sin, it is not natural for us to love God and seek Him. That is why God did not wait for us to come to Him. Instead, He came to us through His Son, Jesus, and made a way for us to get to Him. “I am the way, the truth, and life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” What greater love could there be?

This is what makes Christianity so unique. It is not a religion with an impersonal God. It is a personal relationship with a real, live, personal God. He wants to be personally involved in our lives and to be invited into the dark crevices and hidden corners so that He can graciously usher us into the light of His truth. He wants to be more than just The God. He wants to be your God and my God.

Have you personally responded to the great love of God towards you? He has shown you His love for you in His Son, Jesus. How will you respond?

God, thank You for loving me first. Thank You for seeking me out while I was lost in sin. Please help me to never take Your grace and forgiveness for granted. Help me to love You more and more each day as I study Your Word, pray, serve others, and share my faith. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Topics: Love

Bible Reference

We love because he first loved us.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,

even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,

nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,

may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,

and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

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Respond

March 18, 2022

Bible Reference

1 John 4:19

John 3:16

Romans 5:8

Ephesians 2:4-5

1 John 3:1

Romans 8:35-39

Ephesians 3:17-19