As we study the life of Jesus Christ as it is recorded for us in the Gospels and the writings of the apostles of our Lord, one thing stands out above all others, and that is that love is vitally important. In fact, we are told by the Apostle Paul that love is the most important thing of all (1 Corinthians 13:13). I believe there is a very good reason for this, and it has to do with God Himself and His very nature.
God created the human race out of love, and in love He pleaded with His chosen people, Israel, to return to Him in repentance. It was the love of God that produced the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus, to bring a world of lost sinners back to Him and His family. In fact, God is so much in love with us that the Apostle John gives a definition of God as “God is love.” As John writes in 1 John 4:7-11, “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loves is born of God, and knows God. He that loves not knows not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.”
“God is love.” How simple and yet so eloquently put are those three words. How beautiful and movingly powerful a statement it is! The God of the universe Who made us, the God Who gave us life, this same Person loves each and every one of us. We are the result of the love of God, not simply the accident of some “Big bang”. It is apparent, then, why God was hurt so much, why He was hurt so badly, when His creation turned against Him in the Garden of Eden. The loving touch for His creation by the hand of the Almighty is seen in the very first chapter of the Bible as Moses describes how the Lord first formed man and woman: “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.” (Genesis 1:27)
Paul instructs us to be patient and longsuffering in Galatians 5:22 as part of the fruit of the Spirit we are to be producing as disciples of Christ, but no one has ever come near being as indefatigable as the Lord. He has patiently put up with a lot of nonsense out of us, waiting and waiting for us to return to Him and His wonderful love. He does not want any of us to perish, and neither does He desire to condemn us. As Jesus tells us in John 3:17, He was not sent to condemn us, but to save us.
The love of God towards those who inhabit the Earth is so manifestly great that it is beyond mere mortal comprehension. But when we look upon Him as our Heavenly Father Whom He truly is then and only then do we come close to grasping just how great and wonderful is the love of God!
May the Lord bless you!
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