Love is a very strong word that we use in our everyday life. We love someone or something, you love your spouse or you love that fresh meal. Love is defined as an intense feeling of deep affection or a person or thing that one loves. Other words that go with love are warmth, attachment, devotion, worship, passion, desire, and many more. Did you know God loves everyone, even the sinner? God does not like when we sin, but he still loves us. The saying, “God hates the sin, but loves the sinner”, can be backed up in Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”.
God is love. 1 John 4:7-8 says “ Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”. You might ask, how did God show his love to us? What action did God do, that represents his love for us? If you read the next verse in 1 John 4:9, “ In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.” Jesus was sent to earth so that he could live and experience life like we do, but die on the cross for everyone’s sins. The next verse says “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”. In addition to Jesus dying for our forgiveness of sins, all those who believe in him by being born again are promised everlasting life as mentioned in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”.
So God did his part in loving us by sending his son to die for our sins, what is our part in loving God? Deuteronomy 6:5 says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”. You must live your life for God and his kingdom, what can you do to serve God? We all have different talents and abilities such as, caring for others, leading, teaching, cleaning, music, computers, and many more. We all have at least one talent that you can use for God’s kingdom. If you have the ability to teach, maybe you can teach a Sunday School Class. Maybe you have the musical talent, maybe you can join your church choir. Maybe you are a computer science student, why not make a website to share the Word of God to people all around the world? God appreciates any deed we do big or small, as long as we do it with our best. Galatians 6:9 says, “And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”. Peter Marshall once said, “Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned”.
Another important aspect of love is loving one another. If you go back to 1 John chapter 4 and continue to verse 11 it says, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”. There will be people in our lives that we cannot stand to deal with, whether it be at work, school, church, or even our own family, we must still love them. The same Jesus that died for your sins, died for their sins also.
So how can you show your love to God and to others? How can you plan going forward to do good deeds for God’s Kingdom? Do you show love to everyone in your life, even the people that get on your nerves? These are all important questions to ask, along with making sure our personal relationship with our savior always remains fresh, by staying in the Word, and living our lives accordingly.