What does the Bible say about God's love?
“Who is God?” is a question you will likely ask at some point in your life. The Bible shows us that the answer is simple: God is love.
“But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” – 1 John 4:8 (NLT)
Throughout your Christian walk, you may find yourself focusing more on how much you love God than on who He truly is. This can come from a religious background full of rules and regulations about how to earn God’s love and acceptance, or from mistreatment by people who were meant to represent Christ. Your relationship with God was never based on what you could do for Him (1 John 4:19); it has always been based on His love for you. Understanding God’s love for you & allowing the Holy Spirit to reveal that revelation to you can completely change your life and how you interact with your heavenly father.
You may have grown up with Christ in your home and heard “God loves you” your whole life but many of us never realize there is so much more to that biblical truth. When you open your heart to learn more about a topic you thought you already knew and spend more time getting to know God through His Word, the Holy Spirit will teach you more about God’s love on a whole new level. It becomes something you can never get enough of. God’s love for you is wider and deeper than your natural mind can understand. As you walk with Christ in this life, you can be excited for the new revelations about God’s love that you can continue to learn and experience.
“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails…” – 1 Corinthians 13:4–8 (NKJV)
This passage shines a bright light on God’s character. It tells you exactly what love is and how love moves you to action. What action did God take for you?
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life…” – John 3:16–17 (NKJV)
“Such hope [in God’s promises] never disappoints you, because God’s love has been abundantly poured out within your heart through the Holy Spirit who was given to you.” – Romans 5:5 (AMP)
“There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” – John 15:13 (NLT)
The greatest act of love someone can do for another is to lay down their life. God’s love is completely void of selfish desire. He sent His Son, Jesus; God in the flesh; to live a life you could never live and to die for you. Take a moment to really soak that in. You will hear about Jesus’ sacrifice throughout your Christian walk, and sometimes it can begin to sound like a Christian cliché.
I pray it never becomes cliché to you. Jesus suffered for you. He died for you. He was beaten, bruised, mocked, stabbed, spit on, and hated, because He loves you. He was willing to do the impossible so you could have the opportunity to have a relationship with Him. Never take that lightly. Meditate on these verses about Jesus’ sacrifice for you. It is the greatest act of love mankind has ever seen and is truly the greatest love story.
God’s love is kind, generous, forgiving, and merciful. Those aspects of His love never change, but His love is also pure and sinless. God’s love corrects and transforms you. When you welcome Christ into your life, you are welcoming change. Don’t expect to stay the same when you get to know Jesus. Some remain the same because they choose not to let the Lord into every area of their life. But getting to know Jesus brings change. His love is transformative; sometimes you don’t notice the change until you look back at the person you once were.
The beauty of Jesus’ sacrifice and His invitation to know Him means that you were buried with Christ and raised as a new creation. You were spiritually born again with eternal life. That might feel uncomfortable. You may think, “I love my life the way it is. I like making my own decisions, and I don’t want to change.” We all are given the choice to make fo rourselves, but God’s plan for your life is far better than anything you could imagine for yourself.
“For I know the plans and thoughts that I have for you,’ says the Lord…” – Jeremiah 29:11 (AMP)
“Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it…” – Philippians 1:6 (NKJV)
“The Lord says, ‘I will guide you along the best pathway for your life…’” – Psalm 32:8 (NLT)
When you give God your yes, you allow Him to come in and bless you and bless others through you. Doing life God’s way is lighter. It’s easier to rely on someone who is consistent and never changing than on your emotions and will, which can be high one day and low the next .
Doing life God’s way requires growth. You may experience growing pains as God’s love transforms you from the inside out. You may have to let go of things, forgive people, and learn to hear God’s voice. Embrace the growing pains God’s love may bring. It’s not because He is trying to hurt you, but because He wants to set you free so you can truly experience all He has for you. Growth can feel painful because we often resist change.
So walk confidently into God’s arms. Accept the love He has for you. Open your heart to learn and hear from Him. Be willing to change. Let go of the chains that have held you captive for so long. Trust that He has good plans for you; not because you worked for them, but because His Word says so, and His Word never changes (Psalm 119:89).
Our new collection is all about God’s love! From our spiral-bound notebooks to our cotton tote bags, we hope this new collection serves as a reminder of God’s love wherever you go. Meditate on His Word, speak it aloud, write it down, and allow God’s love to be the foundation you can grow on!
“Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.” - 1 Peter 1:23-25 (KJV) “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” - Romans 6:1-11 (NKJV)
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