Love Is A Response

"We love because he first loved us." - 1 John 4:19 As a follower of Jesus, your love for God is reactive, not proactive. Your love for God is a response to God's prior love for you in Christ. Your love is derivative while God's love is original. Since we know based on the Bible's teaching elsewhere that we are sinners by nature and choice, this means that it wasn't because you perfectly loved him that God loved you. No. God loved you despite your lack of love for him. God loved you despite knowing the worst about you. God loved you with eyes wide open. He knew how you'd fail him in your thoughts, words and deeds. He know how you'd sin against him in more ways than you can count. And yet, despite all of this, he chose to love you and he shows his love for you in that while you were still a sinner, Christ died for you (Rom. 5:8). This is love like nothing else in all the world. So how then should you respond to this amazing love? With love. You should react to God's love by loving him back. Love God the Father for loving you so much that He sent his Son Jesus Christ to die for your sins. Love God the Son for loving you so much that he willingly laid down his life for you. Love God the Holy Spirit for loving you so much that he opened your heart to pay attention to this gospel message and gave you new spiritual life. Your love for God will never be perfect in this life but as you keep your eyes focused on his love for you, your love will grow more and more for him. He loves you now and forever in Christ and there's nothing you can do to change that.  For Jesus, Pastor Mark