1 John 4:9-12
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. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
Yesterday we thought about how God defines love and how our interpretations of God and his actions have to be interpreted in light of love. But what is love? Today’s verses illustrate God’s love, the generous giving of his Son to live as one of us, putting aside his own status and privilege, to show us who God is and what he is like, and through his life, death and resurrection enable us to come into a relationship with his Father. But here’s the twist, it’s only through loving others in a similar way, that we gain a fuller understanding of the nature of God’s love, as we see it at work in and through us.
Take a moment to ask God if there’s anyone he would like you to demonstrate this self-giving love to especially today. Lift that person to him and pray for the Spirit’s guidance and enabling.
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