The Right Love

1 John 4:10 NIV

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Indeed, love is seen in action. A lot of us mistake emotions for love, or we reduce love to the value of gifts and presents, thinking that love has a value that can be quantified in monetary terms. Today's extract however shows that love, properly so called, isn't so much of words but in action; it isn't so much of value received but value given; it doesn't look for reciprocal giving; it just gives because it is its nature to do so. The example before us is so apt. God's love for us wasn't subject to us being worthy of it; He loved us in spite of ourselves. We hadn't done anything to deserve the love shown, but then love would not be truly love if it had to wait for perfect conditions before revealing itself.

God took it upon himself to do all the work. He created us in his image so we could live, love, talk and walk like him. He endowed us with all that we needed to please him, but when sin came, that nature became corrupted. God still didn't give up on us, He sought a new way of bringing us back to himself. Then came the ultimate proof of love: the gift of himself as the price to be paid so we could earn the prize of eternity. He didn't wait till we were the best of people; it was his gift that changed us to be what we are now. He didn't wait for us to work hard and pay back part of the price because we simply couldn't afford it, He paid the full price, even while we hated him and just didn't want anything to do with him.

Today, we are what we are because of that gift that was given. We stand before God and we can claim his blessings because of the gift that was given. We can show love now because the perfect example of love has been shown. We have a purpose and direction now because God's love has put us on the right path. May his grace be sufficient for us as we seek to reproduce this love in the sick and dying world we find ourselves. The world has seen the normal, the usual, and the convenient. It is time for us who have experienced true love to show the world what it is missing. His time of favour is here.