Words of Hope Daily Devotional
START EVERY DAY WITH HOPE
Get the Words of Hope Devotional and get daily encouragement to love God, read his Word, and meet with him in prayer. Available in print and email.
START EVERY DAY WITH HOPE
Get the Words of Hope Devotional and get daily encouragement to love God, read His Word, and meet with Him in prayer. Available in print and email.
God Is Love
Read: 1 John 4:7-12
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. (v. 11)
“God is love,” John writes (v. 8). It certainly sounds right. But what does it actually mean?
It means, first, that God literally is love. It is essential to his nature, for God in himself is a relationship. We do not make God loving, as if God needed to create us in order to have someone to love. In a healthy home, love flourishes long before children arrive because husband and wife love each other. Love flourishes within God, too, for the triune God is one in community. From all eternity, through all eternity, the Father, Son, and Spirit love one another. John therefore rightly proclaims that God is love.
But God is love in another way, too. He actively loves us, the crown of his creation. His love for us caused him to send his son to earth as a sacrifice for our sin. Jesus suffered for our salvation; he died so that we might live. He took our place to spare us from endless shame, torment, and misery. That God is love shows us the reason why God went to such lengths to love us.
We also know and experience God’s love through relationships (v. 12). John’s conclusion is elegantly simple and clear: “Let us love one another, for love is from God” (v. 7).
As you pray, confess that God is love and ask him to help you to love others as he has loved you.
Jerry Sittser is a professor emeritus of theology and senior fellow at Whitworth University. He specializes in the history of Christianity, Christian spirituality, and religion in American public life. As an author, he has written nine books.
