The core of the gospel. What is weaved throughout scripture. What we're called to show others.
Love.
I think we often gloss over the fact that God loves us and that we're called to love others. It's not that we mean to, its just that we hear it so much we're grow accustomed to it. Passive to the fact. But God's love for us is amazing, it's great, it's faithful, it's everlasting. We should never lose our awe of God and of His love. Let's dive back into what it means to love, and to be loved by God.
We're called to love. Why?
1 John 4:19, "We love because He first loved us."
So for us to know how to love others, to know why, we need to look at His love.
Jeremiah 31:3, "I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I have continued to extend faithful love to you."
That's God talking about His people. The ones who abandoned Him, who forgot Him, who served and worshiped other gods, who tried to be like other nations. God said He loved them, and that He would continue to love them.
God loves us the same way. And it's not like we're any better than the Israelites either. I think one reason we often lose our wonder of His love for us is because we forget that we don't deserve it.
But that's what makes His love so amazing!
The fact that we don't deserve His grace, mercy, and love makes it that much more incredible that He loves us.
We are all sinners. We all need forgiveness. We all need Jesus. Like I said, it's not like we're better than the Israelites were. We forget about God, we abandon Him in pursuit of worthless things, we serve ourselves and make other things our idols, we strive to be like the world around us. And He loves us still!
1 John 3:16 says, "This is how we have come to know love: He laid down His life for us."
Jesus has never asked us to do something He isn't willing to do. He has asked us to love, and He loves us. But love isn't just a word or emotion... love is an action. It's a ongoing, continuing thing. He showed us His love by dying on a cross for our sins. We hear about the crucifixion, but I don't think we often realize how much Jesus went through for us.
Jesus was mocked and spat upon. He was whipped. In those days people would die from the whipping alone. Flesh was literally ripped from His body, exposing organs. On His head was placed a crown on thorns, beaten into His head. A robe was placed on Him, mocking Him further. He was to carry the cross to where He would be crucified but He couldn't carry it the whole way so someone from the crowd had to carry it for His. His wrists and feet were nailed into the cross and the cross was raised up. Death by crucifixion was one of the worst - if not the worst - way to die. You hang there for hours (sometimes days), pushing yourself up with your legs, trying to get another breath of air.
Eventually you die of exhaustion and asphyxiation.
Words cannot express the horror of it. But Jesus went through that for you, for me. He went through that for our sins. He, being the perfect sacrifice, died that death for us.
Why did I tell you all of that? Because we will never begin to grasp His love until we realize how much He went through for us, because of His love.
What am I trying to say in this post? I'm trying to say how much God loves you. He loves you so very much! That's the gospel. That's what it all comes down to. His love. God is love. Because He loves us we are to love others! Simple truths, hard to live out.
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Well I'm back! Four weeks later I'm back. I didn't really think I was going to take a break this long but that's what happened and I'm okay with that. It was nice to have a break. But I'm glad to be back.
What has been going on in your life recently? What's God been showing you? What's one of your favorite verses about love? How, in your life, can you put love into action?