Love, Defined!

Love, Defined!

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16 NIV

How do you define love? Most of natural man will view it from the perspective of what s/he gets from the person professing love. That's why you hear a commenr such as: "If you love me, you will.....". We express love as a function of what we can get out, not what we can bring in. For natural man, it is first about me and my needs and what the other person has to do. However, God presents it differently.

From today's extract, one thing is clear: God sees love first as a product of His nature and heart. That's the basis of everything else that He does. God is Love; and all that flows out of Him is love. That's why the greatest expression of his heart is the gift of His Son, Jesus. He didn't hold Him back and offer any other option; He gave His best so we could be the best version of ourselves. His own love wasn't first about what He could get; in fact, at the time of the gift, we didn't even care, but He went ahead anyway.

But for all that God does, there is an expected response and of course, attendant consequences to all decisions. The gift is given; salvation has been offered and the path to life established. The gift is the channel to access this life, and once I accept this gift, I move into a new phase of life, both down here and in eternity. It is not a decision to be taken lightly, and it is also not a decision to be taken wrongly.

God does not want anything of value from us, so we could earn His gift; all He asks for is that I accept His gift and believe in His Son. That's all; costs nothing but is eternally costly if I refuse. Have you accepted this free gift? His time of favour is here.