God is love…………..

“Then Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, “Are you also going to leave?”

 Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life.”  John 6:67-68 NLT

It is a heartwarming truth that “the Lord is my portion” but it is equally true that “the Lord’s portion is His people.”  (Lam. 3:24, Deut. 32:9)

I have often gloried in the fact that God is my joy, my inheritance, and my future. But I have often forgotten that I am His joy, His inheritance, and His future. 

 He told Moses and the Israelites to build Him a home in the desert of Sinai “that I may dwell among them.”  (Ex. 25:8)   God loves to be in the midst of His people, sharing their joys and sorrows and receiving their love and praise.

When Jesus sat with His disciples the night before His crucifixion, He asked them to remember Him. (Luke 22:19)    The wistfulness of a deeply loving heart is evident in that request.  

Love cannot stand alienation or neglect.

Jesus did not rebuke Mary for pouring expensive perfume over His feet.  It was the largess of love, the gratuity of love.

When we pour out such an expression to Him, He rejoices with great gladness of heart.

Jesus asked Simon Peter a pertinent question, “….do you love me more than these?” (John 21:15)  

Love cannot stand a rival.  

Jesus calls me to love without limit, hesitation, or condition.  That is the way He is: “God so loved the world….” (John 3:16)       I must so love Him!

He measures my love by His own not in amount but in quality.   He cannot stand divided, spoiled, or lukewarm love.

He is pleased only by His kind of love reflected in me.   Let me not hesitate to hold back by so high a standard of love, for “the Lord [will] direct [our] hearts into the love of God.”   (II Thess. 3:5)

“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.   But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.   This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

 …..friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.   No one has ever seen God.  But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.

And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us.  Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.

 All who confess that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God.   We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love.

God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.

 And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect.  So we will not be afraid on the Day of Judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.

Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear.  If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.  

 We love each other because he loved us first.

If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?   And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their Christian brothers and sisters.”  I John 4:7-21 NLT