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

Let’s get back to defining Love.  If God loves like we love what would happen?  He would come to us and would never find anyone who is “in His class.”  That would be impossible.  That would mean we are out of luck in having Him Love us.  If God were to love someone, not in His class, he would no longer be God.  That is a major dilemma.

God would not only not find anyone in His class, but He would find people that are disharmony with Him.  We do not jell with His holiness and love. We are selfish.  We like being that way and have no real intention of changing in our natural state.  We do not mesh with God, in our natural state.  There is nothing in us that God can respond to and cause Him to say, “That is the Best Person I know!” 

Therefore, if God loved as humans love, then we would all be finished.  There would be no hope.  Sadly, that’s where the religions of the world are.  That is the kind of God they serve.  Let me relate a story that a missionary shared that illustrates this powerfully.

He asked a tribal witch doctor, “If you were to preach to me, your faith and I were to come to you with a problem, how would you tell me to reach the Most High God?  I know that you believe there are many gods, but the Big One, the Most High, how could I reach Him?”  The witch doctor said, “That is a problem, because the Big One, the Most High God is not interested in you, because you are not good enough for Him.”  That’s the view of many religions in this world and sadly, some Christians live as if God is not interested in them.

We say it in a much more sophisticated manner, but it is said in churches all across this land.  We have been taught that we are not ‘good enough’ for God.  Therefore, He is not interested and we many feel that they have to work, labor, and struggle to become ‘good enough’. 

Once I understood the biblical definition of the Love of God, I immediately realized that our definition of human love is useless in describing God’s Love.  God’s Love is utterly other than our kind of love.  It is not even in the same family.  When the Bible says that “God is Love” it means that He does not reach out to His class.  No, He reaches down to EVERYONE!  Human love reaches up to those they count the most beautiful and the best.  Human love reaches out to they almost bend the knee in worship.  But God reaches down to people that are clearly unworthy of ever being loved by Him. 

That makes no sense but that is the truth of God’s Love!  If we say that God loves good people and makes them His friends that is not a revelation.  That is taught by virtually every religion in the world.  But in Christianity, we say, “God loves the bad, messed up people and makes them His friends.”  That is amazing!

It is almost beyond belief that the Holy God who is Love makes His best friends out of unholy, bad, messed up, rotten, and selfish people.  That is GOOD NEWS!  That is the Gospel, the Good News.

I need to discuss what the word Gospel means but will hold that for the next devotional. 

May the blessings of the LORD overtake you and enrich you on this wonderful day in Him!