Grave Clothes

God loves you

6 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. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. John 3:16-17 (NKJV)

What is true love? What does true love look like? How can you tell that someone really loves you? And what are the signs of this love that everyone seems to desire. We desire to love and to be loved. And, we see this from the movies we watch and the kind of books we read. And amazing as some of those materials are, there's no greater love than the love that God offers.

To know what true love really is, we have to find out from the very source of love. God doesn't just love; He is the embodiment of love.

And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. 1 John 4:16 (NKJV)

God is love. Everything He is and everything He does is from a place of love. Knowing this gives us so much freedom. Knowing this truth helps us in our relationship with God. Sometimes, our idea of God's love for us is not the right depiction of what it's meant to be.

If we have bad experiences in relationships, whether family relationships or romantic relationships, we can easily doubt the genuineness of God's love. There are many people who fail to come to Christ simply because of how they were treated by the people they should have received love from.

The English language doesn't have much range towards what we mean by "love." We use the same word for the love we have for our parents. And the love we have for our friends. And, the same word is used for the love we have for our pets. What does God's love look like?

Divine Love

God's Love is divine. God's love is pure and not self-seeking. God's love doesn't come with conditions. It is proactive. It is intentional. It is a choice. Love is not a feeling. I know that we have many feelings, but Love isn't just a feeling. There's a time those feelings diminish. God shows us through the scriptures that love is an attitude of your heart.

In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 1 John 4:9 (NKJV)

From the scripture above, we see that God is intentional about loving us. He doesn't love us because it makes Him look good. There was nothing for him to gain back. He chose to manifest Himself in this way. Whether we receive God's love or not, it doesn't take away from who God is.

The love that we normally show can be conditional. And because of the conditions, we end up setting ourselves up for failure. Sometimes we love because we want to be loved back. Love is a choice. We choose to do it whether it's been reciprocated or not.

If God's love were conditional, Jesus wouldn't have made it to the cross. There were so many people that never reciprocated that love that He has for us. Many different times, Jesus was almost killed. In some cases, he managed to escape. The love that God has for us expects nothing back. And that's why we should love God.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 (NKJV)

God's love is proactive. What could sinners offer Jesus? There was nothing we could offer God. But Jesus chose to be sin so that we could gain His righteousness. How does this help us in relating with God? Well, we can be sure that God loves us more than anything He created on this earth. He doesn't wait for us to love Him. That's why Jesus' love is so magnetic and draws so many of us to Him.

God's love is sacrificial

2 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. John 15:12-14 (NKJV)