God is love

1 John 4:7-13 NASB

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.  The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.  By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.  In this 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 also ought to love one another.  No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.  By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.

My thoughts -

I love love. Well, I guess I more love the idea of love. The practice of it is a bit more challenging than one might expect.

That's the rub, isn't it? It is easy and it feels good to affirm that God is love. It is easy and it feels good to affirm that God loves us. It is easy and it feels good to affirm that we must love God and love one another. Nice, happy affirming thing, love.

But what does it mean to love? When Paul tells us in 1Corinthians 13 that love is patient, kind, not envious, boastful, proud rude or selfish can we live up to that? When we hear that love does not delight in evil or in lies but rejoices in the truth can we live up to that? When Jesus tells us that there is no greater love than laying down our lives can we do that? Can we follow the example of our Lord who did that very thing for us?

We hear that God is love and desires love from us and it feels good. Love is a nice warm fuzzy word. But love is a pretty demanding ideal. Love requires sacrifice. Love demands our very best. Love demands that we do not hold on to our petty grudges and selfishness but subvert our own wills and serve others, even people we don't much care for.

Love in its greatest form is the selfless act of Christ who offered himself up to reconcile us to God even though we, at the time God's enemies, did not even desire that reconciliation. Can we reconcile selflessly to our enemies?

We can't see God. Not directly. I wish I had direct access to God but it's just not available to me. But we can see love. We can see it in the selfless acts of each other. And love, in its perfect selfless ideal makes no sense. But in this selfless love we see God.

Can we be this love of God in a world desperate for it?