It isn’t easy to feel God’s love on a mid-winter morning with a nasty mix of snow, freezing rain, rain and fog snarling the traffic, but God’s love for us is still true because love comes from God.
February seems like a good month to talk about love, after all, Valentine’s Day, a day dedicated to celebrating human love, falls on February 14th. The typical thoughts and ideas related to Valentine’s Day are beautiful and worthy but a little short on substance. One cartoon says, “Love is like hitting the jackpot in a game of chance.”
Is love restricted to chance? If love is like hitting the lottery, then we don’t have much involvement with it or responsibility for it. Maybe there is more to it than just chance.
According to 1 John 4:7, love comes from God. “Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God.”
Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God (1 John 4:7). Love does not originate in the human heart or in an emotional experience; love is from God. That is why those who know God are those who truly know love.
Love comes from God. God is love, but how do we define it? The dictionary defines love as “an intense affection for another person.” We say we love other people when we are attracted to them and when they make us feel good. Love, then, is conditional, based on feelings and emotions that can change from one moment to the next.
God’s love is unconditional.
God’s love transcends the human definition of love to a point that is almost beyond understanding.
So, God revealed his love by sending Jesus to be one of us and to live among us. “God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
Then, because of that love, we are called to love one another. In doing so, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.