The Nature of His Love

Often at several times throughout the year we find ourselves involved within this gesture of kindness. And we all understand that a gift entertains two parties; the gift giver and the gift receiver. It is with this in view that I wish to meditate upon the gift of God’s love towards us and the response we ought to have in light of it.

The Father’s Love for us

We all understand that we are loved by God – the Bible makes that abundantly clear. But do we ever stop to consider the nature of this love and the cost associated with it? The most ‘well-known’ verse in scripture (John 3:16) is worth careful and lengthy deliberation; for it shows us these things. John writes “For God so loved …” First it is important to recognise that God has loved us. It had no condition, no reason, He just did. It is something I personally don’t think we will ever plunge the depths of, and will be searching into eternity. 

John further writes “… that He gave …” Second we learn that this love came with a cost. As with every gift, the giver (God) paid a price for His gift of love. But such was the magnitude of His love for me and for you that He was willing to give, was willing to give up that which was dear to Him.

What was this? “… His only begotten son …” Thirdly we reach the price God paid to show us, it you will, the seriousness of His love. This wasn’t some half-hearted gift, thought about last minute. God demonstrates His love towards us through the gift He gave – His one and only Son.

We read in Romans 5:6-8:

“…Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

The love of the Father is seen in the sending of the Son. It is difficult to undertake a reflection on this, as to quantify it demands a full understanding of it. But so great is His love that we can’t, and praise God for this! For it is this fact that leads us to ponder and praise Him for His love demonstrated towards us.

Much more could be said of this and many a book has been written on this, the love of God. However, I now turn to our response to this love.

Exhorted to Love

The New Testament is full of imperatives given by the apostles for our love to be shown. All of these could be considered, but I want to turn to the one who all of these are based upon –  our Lord Jesus Christ. John records His words in chapter 15:12-13 of his gospel:

“This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”

There are just two aspects to this that I wish to contemplate. 

First – in the words of the apostle John “we love because He first loved us”. The love that we have for others is only due to the prior event of His love to us. This takes all of the pride and glory away from us and resorts us to the position we should be, following the footsteps of our Lord. Loving because he loved.

Second – A brief consideration of the nature of this love. We are to love as He loved us. That is to love with a love that is patient, self-sacrificial, unconditional and everlasting. We all come across individuals who are difficult to love (we would be honest to say at times this is ourselves) but if we ponder for a second the condition we were in when He loved us, these thoughts will dissipate and give way to this love. Displaying this love won’t be easy for us. We will have to go out of our way and make sacrifices to demonstrate it. We will have to endure and not give up despite what we could be presented with. But coming back to Him and His loving arms will give us the motivation to love with perseverance those who we have been commanded to. May God give us the help and strength to develop such a love as this.