God First Loved Us

We think God’s love for us rises and falls with our performance. It does not. His love is not normal. He loves us for whose we are, not what we do. He loves pious John and adulterous Mary Magdalene the same. It is not normal love!

Love has been perfected among us for this reason: that we may have boldness in the Day of Judgment; because as He is so are we in this world! (1 John 4:17)

And now these three [still] remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love (1 Corinthians 13:13).

We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up but love edifies. And if any man thinks he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. But if any man loves God, the same is known of him (1 Corinthians 8:1-3).

The Christian soul ought to go forward with her love, leaving all her understanding behind. Let her love God as He is in Himself, and not as her imagination says He is or pictures Him. (Miguel de Molinos)

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage. God loves you deeply!

I love You, O Lord, my strength (Psalm 18:1).

That you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice and may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days! (Deuteronomy 30:20)

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good (Romans 12:9).

May Your unfailing love be my comfort according to Your promise to Your servant (Psalm 119:76).

This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him! This is love! Not that we loved God [first] but that He loved us [first] and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 4:9-10).

A Christian seeks justice, true. But justice is primarily a negative concept, based on avoiding or preventing doing wrong to others. The law of love seeks the positive doing of good. It is the only law a Christian needs.

Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud. It is not rude. It is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the true. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails (1 Corinthians 13:4-8).

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love [God] because He first loved us (1 John 4:18-19).

God is love. And he who abides in love, abides in God and God in him (1 John 4:16).

It is simply not normal or natural for us to “love” God in a drastic discipline of a laid-down life.  We are a selfish people.  When called to serve others, we feel insulted.  We have a strange, worldly idea that to be of lowly service is to be “used” or “abused”.  Yet Jesus came among us as a servant. So we must be abnormal…

Love going upward is worship.  Love going outward is affection.  Love stooping downward is grace.

Whoever has My commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves Me. He who loves Me will be loved by My Father. And I too will love him and show myself to him (John 14:21).

If you love Me, keep My commandments… If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him… (John 14:15, 23)

As the Father gave me commandment, so I do! (John 14:31)