1 John 4:8-10
8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
God’s love for us goes beyond what we can understand with our human minds. Can you imagine giving up your only Son for people who don’t love you, who have failed you, who even reject you? That is precisely what God did. His love is not theoretical or conditional. Instead, it is real, personal, and profoundly sacrificial.
This passage teaches us that God doesn’t wait for us to take the first step. It’s not that we loved Him first, but that He loved us first. He proved it in the most radical way by sending His Son to die in our place. Through that sacrifice we could be reconciled with Him.
Sometimes we think we love God, but this Scripture confronts us with a more profound truth. True love is revealed at the cross, not in our feelings or good intentions. And it is there, in that act of total surrender, that we discover how valuable we are to God. We understand how deep His love is for us.
He did not hold anything back, not even His Son, to save you. That is the kind of love that gives life, that transforms. It calls us to love in the same way.
Let us pray:
Dear God, thank You for loving us in such a radical way. Thank You for loving us unconditionally. Help me to experience Your love and to love You, and everyone around me, with a radical and unconditional love.