Revealing a God Who Loves
By Jennifer Slattery
“Let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. … This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him.” 1 John 4:7, 9
Jane* had been fed false notions of love from as long as she could remember. She’d heard the words casually tossed about when things were going well, but the commitment behind them felt as sure and steady as a paper kite on a windy day.
Later, as she grew to know Jesus, she expected Him to behave in a similar fashion, because that was all she’d ever known.
But as she began to grow in Him and connect with His followers, her views on love shifted and her gratitude for grace deepened. She came to see, in the kind and gracious actions of her brothers and sisters, a love so contrary from what she’d previously experienced, she knew it could only come from God.
This love, soaked deep into her most wounded places, began to change her, to fill her, until it overflowed from within and spilled out onto whomever she encountered.
Scripture tells us God doesn’t just love; it’s who He is. It’s His defining characteristic. As His image bearers, love should define us as well. It’s one thing to claim Christ verbally, as false teachers rising up in the ranks of early Christendom were doing, back when John, the author of today’s verse, penned it. But those who truly knew Him revealed this in how well they love. And for those who weren’t sure what that looked like, John provided a beautiful, timeless example—Jesus, the One who came to earth, bore our sins, and died in our place to remove everything that separated us from our loving Father.
May our love also seek to remove barriers that keep others from God and continually point others to Him.
*Name changed for privacy purposes.
Jennifer Slattery is a writer, editor, speaker, and the founder of Wholly Loved Ministries. She writes for Crosswalk, is the author of eight contemporary novels, and helped write Wholly Loved’s Bible study based on the life of Sarai (Gen. 12-23) titled Becoming His Princess, releasing in the spring/summer of 2019. When not writing, reading, or editing, Jennifer loves going on mall outings with her adult daughter and coffee dates with her hilariously fun husband. Visit her online at jenniferslatterylivesoutloud.com.
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Originally published Wednesday, 17 April 2019.
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