Love...

What is love? We cannot see it by looking at other people – at least not people without Christ and sometimes not even people who received Christ. Why can non-believers not be role models of what love is? What is love?
The Bible says: "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us ..." (1 John 4:10). John earlier wrote: "God is love" (1 John 4:8).

1. John reminds us that love always involves self-sacrifice. God "sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice ..." (1 Jn 4:10). If we show this same kind of love we also engage in self-sacrifice – we give up our own desires, our own plans, and seek the good of others. We stop putting ourselves and our own feelings first and put the other person first.

The sending of the Son both shows God's love and that God is love. The sending of the Son both shows that God loves us, and sending Jesus for our sake is the act of love itself. God communicates his love both in words and in deeds.

2. Love: a painful sacrifice. The revelation of God's love and the act of God's love is this: God "sent his one and only Son" (1 John 4:9). God sent "his only begotten Son."

These phrases remind us that Jesus alone is the "eternal, natural Son of God." He is God, he is of God's essence, he is of the same substance as the Father. We know that God the Father loves his only begotten Son with divine love. Jesus was the very best God had to give us!

Yet, the Father "sent his one and only Son." Think of the pain a parent feels when a child leaves – the first day of school, off to varsity or away from home for a job. Think of the pain the Father felt when he sent his one and only Son. What love the Father must have for us that he did this.

3. Love: God sent his Son for sinners – his enemy. "This is how God showed his love among us: he sent his one and only Son into the world" (1 John 4:9) By "world" John means the universe and everything in it, mankind, the fallen creation opposed to God and his rule. The world that has fallen into sin, the world that opposes God, mankind that became God’s fiercest enemy – into this world God has sent his one and only Son.

Not only did God out of love send his Son "into the world" but he sent his Son out of love "for our sins." God sent his one and only Son for sinners. A sinner is someone who has offended God. A sinner has broken God's law. A sinner is guilty in God's sight. A sinner is separated from God. A sinner stands in opposition to God. A sinner deserves God's wrath and condemnation. We all realize that we are the sinners and that Jesus was sent for our sins.

Jesus wasn't sent for perfect people. Jesus wasn't sent for people who are loving and caring and compassionate and kind. Jesus was sent for people who hate God and their fellow mankind. Paul says this:
(Rom 5:8) But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Christ came and Christ died for people who were enemies rather than friends.

A human example…A recent story about a brave soldier, is about Michael Monsoor who gave his life to save his friends. This American Navy soldier sacrificed his life to save his comrades by throwing himself on top of a grenade Iraqi fighters tossed into their sniper hideout. Michael A. Monsoor had been near the only door to the rooftop structure when the grenade hit him in the chest and bounced to the floor. "He never took his eye off the grenade, his only movement was down toward it," said a 28-year-old lieutenant who sustained shrapnel wounds to both legs that day. "He undoubtedly saved mine and the other soldier’s lives, and we owe him."

Monsoor did this for friends.
Jesus did this for enemies! For you and me.

Real love involves sacrificial love, sacrificing the best we have to offer. Not only for God and for those who are good to us, but also love for those who oppose us because we are Christians.

Jesus delivered us from the bondage of sin and the burning wrath of a holy God. We owe God and his eternal Son love, sacrificial love and we owe real love to everyone he requires us to love!