Saturday, October 10, 2009

We love Him because He first loved us - 1 Jn 4:19

Have you ever noticed that Paul never speaks of his love for Christ? Rather he keeps on talking about Christ's wonderful love for him. Neither does he insist that we love Christ. Instead he keeps telling us how Christ loved, and loves, us.

It's interesting to note that the law commanded, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (Matt 22:37). But then this is the very nature of the law. And we should love God. However, the law cannot produce love, so God comes to us in grace and says, “I love you.” Therefore, what the law could not accomplish, grace did and does, because love produces love. When we come to know the love of Christ, we respond to Him in love. That’s why Paul's epistles are so filled with the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 8:39).

Peter, like Paul, had once been a strict observer of the law, and he too had come to know the love of Christ. As a result, Peter had developed a deep love for Christ and the overflowing joy that accompanies such love. That’s why we read these heartfelt words in 1 Peter 1:8: Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.

Knowing and loving Christ brings inexpressible joy (1 Pet 1:8), but we can't love Him, or others, by trying. Instead, we must accept His love for us in faith so that our hearts may naturally respond.

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