God is love and love is God - by Bec Bonython

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us – he sent his one and only Son into the world that we might love 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 also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

V16. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love, lives in God and God in him. 1 John 4:7-11 and v16

Inherent in God is every shade and texture and breadth and aspect and width and meaning of love. It is so much more than the Greek agape’s “highest form of love” which is demonstrated as selfless sacrifice and is unconditional and unchanging. God is ALL of love. This love which is immeasurable and unfathomable. This love which is so wide and long and high and deep.

This love is for you and for me.

We will never fully understand it or comprehend it or appreciate it and that’s ok. God just wants us to abide in it. This means to live in it and to rest in it. To know it. To be complete in it. To desire it and to be satisfied in it. From there, we our cup will overflow with His love.

What we do know about God’s love:

• God is the originator of love. Only when we are satisfied in Him do we experience true love.

• God’s love is pure. His love does not conflict with His holiness, righteousness, justice or even His wrath.

• God loved me first. Romans 5:8

• God’s love is demonstrated through creation and through His Son, Jesus.

• God’s love multiplies. As we spend time with Him, His love rubs off on us. Therefore, a valid test of our true Christian faith is our love for one another.

• God’s love is proclaimed in the bible, proved at the cross and perfected in us. We show the love of God in us to others through our kindness, generosity, patience, acceptance etc…

Stand firm in the truth that - God is love and love is God.