Love is demonstrated, not just communicated verbally. When the Scriptures tell us that God loves us, they always show God's actions that demonstrate that love. Here, John wants us to realize that God's love goes first. God demonstrates and shares his love with us before we demonstrate our love for him. He doesn't wait till it is safe to love us. He doesn't wait until he will get something in return. Instead, he goes first and defines his love in this way so that we can know that genuine love redeems when all hope seems lost - when we are not worthy, and when we are not ready. God is love, and we know this because of what his love does, had done, and will give to us even before we choose to love him.
My Prayer...
Thank you, dear Heavenly Father, for loving me so extravagantly. Please help me see the opportunities to love others you place in my path every day. Use me, please, dear Father, to demonstrate your love to someone today and the following days of my life. Help me go first with love in my life. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.
"The next morning [after the earthquake released Paul and Silas from their chains and stocks in Philippi,] the city officials sent the police to tell...."
"Dear Father, firm foundation, Help me to avoid disputes about words, which does no good, but merely ruins the hearers. Help me do my best to present...."
"They made God jealous with foreign gods and angry with hateful idols. They made sacrifices to demons, not God, to gods they had never known, new gods...."
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