God's love for us is incredible! Even when our perceptions of Him are inaccurate, He seems to give us opportunity to be corrected if we are humble enough to receive correction. God's love for us is not about making much of us but rather saving us from self-centeredness so that we can make much of God and enjoy Him more than anything else in this life.
Look at 1 John 4:7-12:
"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.
In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us." (emphasis added)
Is it not fascinating that whenever John mentions God's love toward us and shown through us it is always qualified with God-centered and others-centered love. This is no surprise if you remember what the greatest commandment is in Matthew 22:37-40:
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
This is the great and first commandment.
And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."
God's love for us is not a man-centered love, but rather a God-centered love. There is tremendous practical follow-up from this point: how do I demonstrate love toward others, how do I worship God, how do I witness to others... Do I do these things in a man-centered way or in a God-centered way...? Join me in asking ourselves the tough questions...
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