1 John 4:7-12

Centuries ago Pilate asked our Lord Jesus—what is truth? I think we might ask a similar question in our day. What is love?

1 John 4:7–12 ESV

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

Is love these overwhelming feeling I have? Is love this commitment—this dogged commitment to someone else, even if it doesn’t have feelings attached to it? God’s Word says if you want to know what love is look to what God did in sending His Son. Look to the Son.

God sent his son. He gave him up. He sacrificed him. He didn’t hold onto Him. He freely gave him. Love is sacrificial. Love gives.

But the giving is for a purpose. Notice the “so that”…it is so that we might live through Him. He gives His Son so that you and I can have life. So love is radically dedicated to the greater good of the one who is loved.

And it’s not motivated by being reciprocated. We do not love because the other loves us. Love flows out of character. God loved us because he decided to love us. His Son paid for our sins. And this we read is how we ought to love one another.

God leads us into this love. This is what it means that God is love. This is what it means—for those in Christ—when we say God loves you. It means that God gives. It means that God is radically dedicated to your redemption. Do you think he won’t accomplish it? Do you think that something you do can stop God’s love? You didn’t get the love train started and our sin isn’t going to halt it. You didn’t put the fuel in the engine, nothing you do can deplete it. God has purposed to love you in eternity past. And He is radically dedicated to fully redeeming you. Oh yes, rest in His love. But also may His love flow through us as we love others—and labor for their greatest good.

Yes, that is love.