Lenten Blog #2

Are we really sure what we mean each time we use the word LOVE?

Sometimes it seems like LOVE is one of the most widely misused words in the English language. We LOVE our children, we LOVE our spouse, we LOVE a TV show or we LOVE chocolate. The same word we use to describe our feelings towards the most basic of items we use towards the most treasured relationships. Do we have the same misuse when it comes to God’s LOVE when the bible says God is LOVE? God’s LOVE is not just a happy and sweet LOVE. His holiness demands that all sin be punished, but His LOVE provides the cross and the cleansing of our forgiveness. No matter how terrible our sins are, God LOVES us. He is also the perfect example of LOVE for us.

As you read the following passage from 1 John 4:7-21, meditate on the following:
1. Have you fully embraced the LOVE God has for you?
2. Is there a relationship in your life that you are having difficulty showing LOVE to another? What are some initiatives you can take to mirror God’s example of LOVE?

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. "