This is from 1 John, chapter 4, starting at verse 7-10 and
skipping to verse 19:
“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 propitiation for our sins…” Truly, “We love because He first loved us.”
That last verse is so simple, pithy even. “We love because He first loved us.” It’s not long, not complicated but we should not mistake that for plain or basic. “We love because He first loved us.” It is profound, full of theological import and significance that not only encourages us with its brevity but challenges us with its meaning. “We love because He first loved us.”
John, the writer of this, is saying two intensely difficult things: that Christ is to be both the reason we love, but, even more so, He is the manner with which we love, He is the why, but He is also the how. “We love because He first loved us."
Now, through faith in Christ Jesus, confession that He is Lord and belief that God has raised Him from the dead, we may enter into right, redeemed relationship. Our frailty is replaced with strength, our brokenness is mended, and our infirmities our healed by Christ, in Christ, and through Christ. The love that He first loved us with at the cross now lives within us, guiding us, and empowering us to live and love as as Christ. “We love because He first loved us.”
It was Christ’s perfect work at the cross that has enabled us to love. He has empowered us with the ability to love. And this is not love like the world thinks, like some emotional whimsy, or daffodil capriciousness of "he loves me, he loves me not." No. This is the real, serious love that can only come from Him who is living within us through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Remember: “We love because He first loved us.”
This love is selfless, not self-seeking; it is pure, not tainted by our flippancy. It is not an "I'll scratch your back you scratch mine," type of relationship. No. This love is altogether other, stemming from the deepest depths of our beings and welling up through our pores for us to lavish upon those we love. Above all, it is a gift from God given through Christ to all those who call on Him as Lord and Savior. This is a beautiful, easily memorable verse, but as we pull back the layers, as it unfurls, we begin to see the density behind it. “We love because He first loved us.”
Christ’s love is not just an example for how we should love. It is the very ability, the source within us to love. In order for us to love as He has loved us, we must always keep our focus fixed, our gaze set upon the cross, which is the sole cornerstone of why and how we love. It is at the cross that we see ourselves as we truly are. And it is at the cross that we see who God is, and it is in this revelation that true love is made possible at all. This is why "We love because He first loved us."
Love is rooted, ultimately, in God. The why and the how of love is based in the life and work of Christ Jesus, who has set us free when He saved us at His cross. At our cores, we are broken fragments and frail egoists as a result of sin’s pervasiveness in our lives. Yet God, who is rich in mercy, condescended to us, emptying Himself through the incarnation of His Power into the human form of His Son, Christ Jesus, who lived a perfect, sinless life. Yet He was tried for His innocence and found guilty of no punishable crime, though He did claim to be God’s only Son and, by that virtue, the rightful King of the World .
“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 propitiation for our sins…” Truly, “We love because He first loved us.”
That last verse is so simple, pithy even. “We love because He first loved us.” It’s not long, not complicated but we should not mistake that for plain or basic. “We love because He first loved us.” It is profound, full of theological import and significance that not only encourages us with its brevity but challenges us with its meaning. “We love because He first loved us.”
John, the writer of this, is saying two intensely difficult things: that Christ is to be both the reason we love, but, even more so, He is the manner with which we love, He is the why, but He is also the how. “We love because He first loved us."
Now, through faith in Christ Jesus, confession that He is Lord and belief that God has raised Him from the dead, we may enter into right, redeemed relationship. Our frailty is replaced with strength, our brokenness is mended, and our infirmities our healed by Christ, in Christ, and through Christ. The love that He first loved us with at the cross now lives within us, guiding us, and empowering us to live and love as as Christ. “We love because He first loved us.”
It was Christ’s perfect work at the cross that has enabled us to love. He has empowered us with the ability to love. And this is not love like the world thinks, like some emotional whimsy, or daffodil capriciousness of "he loves me, he loves me not." No. This is the real, serious love that can only come from Him who is living within us through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Remember: “We love because He first loved us.”
This love is selfless, not self-seeking; it is pure, not tainted by our flippancy. It is not an "I'll scratch your back you scratch mine," type of relationship. No. This love is altogether other, stemming from the deepest depths of our beings and welling up through our pores for us to lavish upon those we love. Above all, it is a gift from God given through Christ to all those who call on Him as Lord and Savior. This is a beautiful, easily memorable verse, but as we pull back the layers, as it unfurls, we begin to see the density behind it. “We love because He first loved us.”
Christ’s love is not just an example for how we should love. It is the very ability, the source within us to love. In order for us to love as He has loved us, we must always keep our focus fixed, our gaze set upon the cross, which is the sole cornerstone of why and how we love. It is at the cross that we see ourselves as we truly are. And it is at the cross that we see who God is, and it is in this revelation that true love is made possible at all. This is why "We love because He first loved us."
Love is rooted, ultimately, in God. The why and the how of love is based in the life and work of Christ Jesus, who has set us free when He saved us at His cross. At our cores, we are broken fragments and frail egoists as a result of sin’s pervasiveness in our lives. Yet God, who is rich in mercy, condescended to us, emptying Himself through the incarnation of His Power into the human form of His Son, Christ Jesus, who lived a perfect, sinless life. Yet He was tried for His innocence and found guilty of no punishable crime, though He did claim to be God’s only Son and, by that virtue, the rightful King of the World .
For that, He was beaten, flogged, stripped, spat upon, and marched through the streets of Jerusalem carrying the cross of our shame and the instrument of His death. He was then crucified naked alongside the main roads just outside the city gates. He was murdered, not for anything He had done, but because it was God's will to bestow grace and love to humanity by taking on the sin of mankind in His own flesh and nailing it to the cross. But three days after His death and burial, the stone that sealed His grave was moved and He was found risen. He rose from the grave, confirming that He was and is the Messiah, the Son of God. “We love because He first loved us.”
Now, through faith in Christ Jesus, confession that He is Lord and belief that God has raised Him from the dead, we may enter into right, redeemed relationship. Our frailty is replaced with strength, our brokenness is mended, and our infirmities our healed by Christ, in Christ, and through Christ. The love that He first loved us with at the cross now lives within us, guiding us, and empowering us to live and love as as Christ. “We love because He first loved us.”
It was Christ’s perfect work at the cross that has enabled us to love. He has empowered us with the ability to love. And this is not love like the world thinks, like some emotional whimsy, or daffodil capriciousness of "he loves me, he loves me not." No. This is the real, serious love that can only come from Him who is living within us through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Remember: “We love because He first loved us.”
This love is selfless, not self-seeking; it is pure, not tainted by our flippancy. It is not an "I'll scratch your back you scratch mine," type of relationship. No. This love is altogether other, stemming from the deepest depths of our beings and welling up through our pores for us to lavish upon those we love. Above all, it is a gift from God given through Christ to all those who call on Him as Lord and Savior. This is a beautiful, easily memorable verse, but as we pull back the layers, as it unfurls, we begin to see the density behind it. “We love because He first loved us.”
Christ’s love is not just an example for how we should love. It is the very ability, the source within us to love. In order for us to love as He has loved us, we must always keep our focus fixed, our gaze set upon the cross, which is the sole cornerstone of why and how we love. It is at the cross that we see ourselves as we truly are. And it is at the cross that we see who God is, and it is in this revelation that true love is made possible at all.
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