1 John 4:16 tells us that God is love. What does this mean? How much does God love us? These are the questions I will be answering in this article.
Let's think about it this way: God is love, correct? And we are supposed to be more like God than like man, right? And 1 Corinthians talks about the qualities of love, so doesn't that mean that 1 Corinthians 13 is the basic layout of what we as Christians are to be? According to 1 Corinthians 13, love is:
patient
kind
not envious
not boasting
not arrogant
not rude
not insisting on its own way
rejoicing in truth
all bearing
all believing
hoping
enduring
and never ending
These are not only things that love is, but also what God is. Obviously God is insistent on His way, but that is because His will is perfect whereas ours is imperfect. What does all this have to do with God's love for us? Well, just look at this list. God is perfect in all of these things, and I can guarantee that no matter how much we love someone, our love is not perfect.
God sent His only Son down to earth to teach those who didn't believe Him and eventually brutally tortured Him to the point of murder so that they may or may not in the future be baptized and go to heaven to spend eternity with that very man they just brutally murdered. The love and compassion that Jesus had when He died on the cross is indescribable. Jesus, known as the man of sorrows, had so many problems. He was tempted in every way possible which is something that I don't believe any of us can all say, was constantly persecuted and knew that one day He would be crucified (and even though He was still Jesus, and He still knew what would happen, and He still knew that He was God's Son, He still was scared and He still prayed that it wouldn't have to happen and He still went through with it because of His love for us) and still, as we see in Matthew 9:36 had compassion for everyone. He didn't see the fact that it was our sins that would put Him on that cross, but that He could help us to get to heaven anyway. If that isn't love, then I don't know what is. If Jesus went through all of this and was still patient, kind, not envious, not boasting, not arrogant, or rude, etc. then that shows us, who can't go a week without not being one of those things, just how much love He had. And God, having to watch His Son go through all of this because His creation was sinning against Him and wanted to give us a chance even though He knew the majority wouldn't accept this, that shows us how much love He has.
Far too often do we think about how others should love us or how horrible our lives are that we forget how much God loves us. We cannot forget the love that God has shown us. Today I would like to encourage you all to dwell on this, and never forget the love that has been shown to us. There are no bounds to the love of God.
