God is Love

by Nicole Cifuentes

1 John 4:7-8 says “Dear friends, let us love on another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

Love is an action

There was a day in high school I will never forget that has shaped my view of love forever. I was sitting on my off hour in a hallway with a church friend, Justin. We were talking about girlfriend and boyfriend woes when he brought up the idea of soul mates. For another 30 minutes he began to tell me his view of soul mates. I sat there enthralled with his wisdom and took what he had to say to heart.

Love is not what is pictured on the TV or in our fictional books. When God talks of love he is not talking about a feeling. Love is an action.

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 ESV

No where in this passage does it say “love is an oowy goowy feeling” or “love is how I'm feeling today”.

On the contrary. Love is a list of actionable characteristics we should be and even more, things we should not do. It call us to lay down ourselves for the sake of other people. It is not something we only have with our one true person or family, but something we are called to show the whole word.

“Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.” Romans 13:8 ESV

My friend knew the value of love and I was so lucky he spoke this wisdom over me so long ago. The biggest thing he said was love never fails. In the ESV, that word fails is translated “ends”. Love is eternal, as God is eternal.

Love is eternal

Last week we talked through eternity and God’s goodness shown is his eternal being. Knowing how love is an action brings a whole new light to this infamous verse:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 ESV

It is in God’s love that we are saved! God loves us!

Take a moment and repeat that to yourself:

God loves me!

The power of that love is breathed throughout the entire Bible. It is woven in every aspect of the scripture stories. Everything God did was in love for us humans. He has been working to guide us back to him to live out our original purpose of communing with him everyday. The beauty of the gospel is in the philosophy that one day- forever- we get to be with the one who is called love.

Have you ever been around a calming individual? This person does not get overwhelmed by a ton of things and doesn’t get angry easily. They are levelheaded and solve problems with ease. It’s always so refreshing for me to be with someone like this. Their calmness seeps through the air and eventually hits my anxious heart and allows me to sit in peace.

This is how I imagine how eternity will be. God’s love will seep in the air and fill up every nook and cranny of self worth, anxiety, and depression; causing all harmful things to fall away and be replaced by love.

Love changes us today

Now don’t forget, eternal means outside of time. That feeling doesn’t have to wait until eternity! You can get this love TODAY.

God invites us into his unconditional love now. The problem is our broken world will constantly be fighting for the spaces within us while we are still here on earth. So while love is eternal, you can replace it with anger, strife, bitterness, envy, and so on. It’s a daily work we must do to continually to put on love. As you put on love, those bad characteristics will fall out of you and be replaced with only good and precious things. Love will change you from the inside out.

“And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” Colossians 3:14 ESV

How contrary to what we are told?!? I was always taught that you had to feel it to do it. You had to feel love to do love. But no! We are called to put on love whether or not we want to. This is what binds up everything in perfect harmony!

Colossians 3 beautifully lays out the multitude of ways to put on new characteristics once saved in Christ. I encourage you in your deeper study to review this passage and see what God speaks to you in it. But ultimately, God cares so deeply that he is giving us his love so that we can then pour it out to others.

Love is Unconditional

This love is unconditional.

Conditional love is not real love. When we think “well I’ll love him if he only (insert condition here)” we are distorting the love God is.

God doesn’t wait until we get our acts together before he made his plan with Jesus. They were not sitting up in heaven saying “whenever these Israelites finally start following our rules, that’s when

we can come save them”. No! They came when earth was hurt. They came when earth was savage. They came amongst the pain, the brokenness, the sin, while it was all still here and well alive. It’s never been about us doing anything to earn their love! Just by being, you earned it sister!

This crazy unconditional undeserving love it what love is all about.

“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8

Closing:

As we go into our weeks renewed in God’s love, let us reflect on one of the last commandments given.

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” John 13:34 ESV

God is love. His love made a way for us. Love is an action we must be empowered to complete for each other today, tomorrow, and forever more.

“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:22-23 ESV

Prayer:

God my love,

Fill me with your eternal love. Help me to see the world as you do, one who needs love no matter what they do. Help me to show your love to this world through my actions everyday. I am so grateful for your love that fills my soul. I know now I no longer need to seek people or things to fill me, but your love is abounding and endless. There will never be a time I can’t come to you for love, whether I am doing good or evil, your love extends beyond my actions or circumstances. I want you to fill me again with your love.

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Hey sweet lady, we want to take a quick minute to guide your next steps with the scripture and application portion. We believe that in order to truly grow closer to God, we need to spend time dwelling on what he’s trying to teach us and not rush through it. We encourage you to spend a full week dwelling on this devotional and all it has to offer you. That means you can save some of the scripture passages for another day or re-read them in the week. We also encourage you to take your time with the application portion. You can sit in each prompt until you feel God revealing his truths to you. Don’t rush, take time to truly get to know him better by sitting in what he’s trying to teach you this week. That's where your faith will grow.

Scripture for Deeper Study:

• Psalm 103:8

• 1 John 4:8

• Colossians 3:1-17

Application:

1. Journal where you’ve seen God’s love most evident in your life lately. Look past and inside of any hurts you may be feeling today. Maybe his love is simply carrying you through it. Maybe his love is forging a way. Look for it deeply and you will find it. Then write it down.

2. Write a love letter to God telling him of all the ways you love Him, not just what he’s done for you, but who he is. To know God’s character is to love him.

3. Place your name instead of the word love in the 1 Corinthians passage. Are you as loving as you thought? Ask God to help you change into the loving woman of God he wants you to be.

4. After reading Colossians 3, how has your perspective of how to be a loving human changed? How has it stayed the same? What actions do you have to bring love back to this world?