As I grew up, I think I really misunderstood God’s love. I thought that God’s love was dependent on my performance and that I had to earn it. Whether I was in His good graces depended on the scale weighing my actions. I saw His love as a two sided scale with one side weighing the good deeds and one side weighing the bad behaviors.  If the good side outweighed the bad then He would love me; if not then I was out of His graces and unable to receive His love. Slowly, over the years as my faith has grown, I have been learning through His word that His love is so much better and different than I could have possibly imagined. As I receive His gift of love, I can allow love to flow in and through me to others as well.

To learn more about His love and grow, I look to His word for the ultimate truth, rather than what people say or I think and feel. As a human, I think it is very difficult for us to understand God’s love because for us love is something we can choose to do. It is a feeling or an emotion that we can choose to express through our actions. But God is not that way, in 1 John 4 we are told twice in 8 verses that God is love. It is not something He does, but something He is, an attribute of His character. Because He is love, He always loves and His love is perfect, He cannot be or do anything different.

So how is God’s perfect love expressed? Love is described for us in detail in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, which starts as “Love is…”. Since we know that God is love then we can therefore say those verses in 1 Cor. 13 like this: God is patient, God is kind. He does not envy, He does not boast, He is not proud. He is not rude, He is not self-seeking, He is not easily angered, and He keeps no record of wrongs. God does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. He always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. God never fails.  As I read the parts about what love and God as love is, I think wow, what a list of things that I can count on for how God shows His love towards me. What a relief to know that God does not act like I in my human nature do. My default is to think that He will be like me: selfish, prideful, keeping a record of wrongs and only sometimes patient or kind. But God is not me nor human; He is God and He is love, unconditional love.

This unconditional love offered His son to tear down the wall that separated all of humanity from God. Jesus is the consummation of God’s love. He expressed this love by coming to earth as a man to bridge the gap between God and humanity, offering forgiveness and salvation, reconciling us to God. The only thing God asks of me is to receive the free gift He provided through His son. What’s amazing about this love is that His great love is offered to me regardless of whether I know or accept it. I do not need to perform or meet some standard for God to love me; I simply need to receive it. It doesn’t matter what I have done or how far I have strayed. There is no scale measuring my good and bad deeds. The belief that what I did is too bad, I’m not good enough, haven’t done enough or not worthy; is rooted in my pride to pay my own way and my lack of trust. So, as I seek Him and offer myself to Him in complete surrender I open myself to be able to know God’s love more, not intellectually but in my heart as fears subside and trust increases. The more my heart becomes free, the more I can receive His love, love others and love God Himself.

Practice for Today

I will open my heart to God today and ask to receive His love in faith. I will be grateful that God is not a taskmaster with a laundry list of things I need to do to qualify for His love. When I think about God’s love for me, I will ponder how I love my children and there is nothing they can do to make me love them any less. God loves me that way too, but so much more than I could possibly even understand. I am worthy of His love because I am created in His image, not because of what I do. I will sit at God’s feet and willingly choose to accept the love He freely offers me.

Romans 5:8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us

1 John 4:15-16 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.