Considering Love

On this last Sunday of Advent, I’ve listed a few Bible passages about love that I hope will encourage your heart as we prepare for Christmas.

Receiving God’s Love

God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

1 John 4:9-10 NLT

That is a love almost beyond comprehension, isn’t it? Even so, we can pray to understand it, as Paul prayed for the Ephesians:

And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

Ephesians 3:18-19

As we pray to comprehend the depths of God’s love for us, we can stand firmly in what we’ve been promised: we can’t ever escape it!

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8: 38-39

Responding to God’s Love

We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.

1 John 4:16

How can we not respond to God’s overwhelming love by loving him in return?

Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’

Mark 12:29-30

Reflecting Love

As we allow God’s love to fill our hearts, it will naturally spill over to affect the ways we treat and interact with others.

Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.

1 John 4:11-12

Wouldn’t it be amazing if everyone who claims to follow Jesus lived by this simple guideline, that we fully express God’s love for one another? I think that’s one of our problems. We think loving others is a suggestion, while Jesus commanded it.

So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

John 13:34-35

And again a few chapters later:

When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you.

John 15:10-12

Not only will loving others identify us as his followers, but Jesus promised that we would be filled with his joy! I think that’s a pretty good return on our investment!

Resolving to Love

Love is a decision, not a simple emotion. It’s not based on circumstances, but on our standing firmly in the love of God. Here’s a little refresher:

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

I pray that as we get closer to celebrating Christmas Day you are able to take time to receive and respond to God’s love for you, sent in the form of a helpless baby born in a stable.

I also pray that as you are filled with the wonder of his love, you would be able to grow in reflecting his love to those around you.

Live loved this season, friends!

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