1 John 4:7-11 – “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”  NASB

What is the Big Picture of the Will of God for our lives?  There is a Big Picture that is true for every believer.  The details may not be the same as to how it is worked out in our lives, but the overall Big Picture is the same.  So, what is the Big Picture?

The desire of God for His children arises out of Who He Is!  God is the Way. He IS and has a desire for us – “That we become a manifestation and a demonstration of Who He is.”  There is none more perfect than God and if He is perfect, there can be no higher call than to manifest or demonstrate Him before the world.  The Big Picture which is His will and design for every person is “That we manifest Who He is.  That we become demonstrations of Him to the entire world.”  Remember, Jesus said, “Go ye therefore to all the world.”

That raises another important question – Who Is God?  John told us that God is Love. That is the ultimate identifier of God.  That means that everything we know about God or will ever know about God is rooted in this truth. 

Let me explain it with the thought of God’s Almightiness.  We think of God as the ultimate Power, He is Almighty.  But remember, God does not ‘have’ power He ‘is” power.  God said, “Let there be light and there was light.”  God spoke things into existence.  That is the ultimate demonstration of Power and His Almightiness. But, imagine a God with that kind of power who is not love.  He would be a monster of monsters.  Love controls everything that we know about God. 

We think of God as Omniscient, knowing everything past, present, and future.  But imagine a God who knows us to that extent and does not even like us.  We are sometimes ashamed to confide in closest and most intimate friends some of the thoughts that pass through our heads.  Can you imagine a God that knows those thoughts even before we think them and does not love us?  That would bring such terror that suicide would be a normal thought.  Imagine a God with all we know about Him from Scripture and strip Him of Love – He would be an infinite monster!

When it comes to definitions, the Bible does not say: “God is Power.”  I am able to discover that He is through study, but the Bible does not specifically say that.  But when it comes to “Love”, it says it explicitly.  HE IS LOVE!  It is not something He has it is what He is.  Love is not something apart from God, HE IS LOVE!  Thank God He is.

That presents a problem for many in the Body of Christ today.  Why?  Because we do not know what Love is.  When we say, “God is Love” we use a word that is useless in truly understanding God.  We define God’s Love based on our definition and understanding of Human Love. 

What do we mean when we say, Love?  I urge you to walk carefully and think your answer through.  When we say that we often mean that we reach out to someone we consider “in our class.”  Don’t allow a false humility to arise, that is exactly what we do.  It is rare, very rare that someone has real love for another that is not perceived in their class. 

For example, in the old European economy, if a member of royalty falls in love with a commoner, they are fired.  When a king falls for a commoner, he loses his kingship.  So, when we fall in love, as humans, we tend to keep within our perceived status or class.  We tend to fall in love within our tribes.  We tend to keep unspoken boundaries.  We never acknowledge it or talk about it, but the evidence is there.

When we say, “I love this person we are saying this is a person who calls forth my highest admiration.”  When we see them, we admire them and have that Wow factor existing in our hearts and minds.  When we talk about that person, we view them as someone special and in a sense, there is an element of worship involved.  Therefore, when we Love someone it means that they answer to what we feel is beauty.  Beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder.  Beauty is something that happens inside our heads.  That’s how we understand love.

I hate to leave you dangling but will pause until the next devotional and discuss our interpretation and definition of love more deeply. 

Until then, have a great day in God!