Let’s talk about the love of God because reviewing God’s Word regularly keeps our faith strong – even in the midst of trials and attacks. When we know we are loved by God, we are able to love others as He loves them. So, let’s start with some truths and allow God to freshly inspire us, correct us, if need be, and to fire us up to share God’s love with others.

God IS love:  1 John 4:7 tells us that love comes from God, and verse 8 says whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. Now we know there are couples who love each other who don’t know God, so obviously this is talking about the God-kind-of-love – unconditional love, an unselfish love, and an unlimited love that only comes from God. When we love God, we are more able to love like Him.

God chose to love us:   John 15:16 says “you did not choose me, but I chose you….”.  In other words God was the first to initiate love between Himself and mankind. First of all, because of His abundant love, He is the one who chose to create us. Love needs an outlet to express itself and since God IS love, he needed someone “like” him to bestow his love upon. Secondly, He has appointed us to bear fruit – fruit that will last. Eternal fruit is the only thing that will last. This fruit comes from our faith in HIM – believing His promises and bringing them into our lives now. Eternal fruit is sharing the Gospel with others and seeing them accept Jesus as their Savior.

God’s love is always the same, because He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Hebrews 13:8) His love is unconditional. Love is who He is; not just what He has. Love is His nature, not just one of His good qualities. God’s love never changes; His love is the same; it’s limitless, never-ending, constant, steady, pure, and righteous. His love is righteous because His love is based on Him and not on us. Love IS who He is, and therefore everything He does is with love.

This next statement is one that has been resonating in my mind and spirit for a couple of weeks: God doesn’t love us more since we got saved than before we received Jesus as Savior. We couldn’t earn His love before we were saved and we can’t earn “more” of His love now that we are saved. Again, I say, His love for us IS NOT based on our performance; His love is based on who He is – God is love.

If we were able to “earn” His love; it would be based on our performance and Isaiah 64:6 calls that kind of righteousness filthy rags. If His love for us was based on our performance then His love would fluctuate in response to our ability to earn more love on our good days and lose out on our bad days. But the Kingdom of God is all based on JESUS’ RIGHTEOUSNESS AND HIS GIFT of LIFE!  A gift is not something we earn; it is something we receive! It is His love for us through the gift of Jesus that gives us worth.

This is not to say we don’t need to work in the Kingdom of God. Of course we do. Otherwise, how could we ever fulfill the Great Commission “to into the world and preach the Gospel”. (Matthew 28:18-20 and Mark 16:15-17) But that kind of work is our response TO God’s love for us not to earn His love. God expresses His love for us and for us by giving us blessings and promises; we express our love for Him by giving ourselves to work in His Kingdom in whatever capacity He calls us to.

There is no way we have the ability to love people unconditional without having God’s unconditional love residing in us. So, I submit to you that the more we know and understand God’s love for us – the more able we are to show that same kind of love to others.