Immediately following he declaration that God is love, John writes 1 John 4:7-11. Here John points us to God’s sacrifice in sending His Son to remind us that love sacrifices to forgive. We ae told that since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. Yet, do we love one another enough to forgive each other, with or without apologies for wrongs done to us? We all have an innate sense of justice deep withing our souls, but it has been perverted by our selfish sinful natures. The justice we envision satisfies our own interests. We need to understand that God is the only rigtful administrator of justice in all of creation. In order to forgive others, we must be satisfied with God’s justice and forego the satisfaction of our own (Romans 12:17-21). This forgiving aspect of love enables us to be patient with one another and to live at peace with one another. This love enables us to deal gently with our brother, even when he sins against us. If we are to grow in the grace of love, we must be ready to forgives, even at great cost to ourselves. … READ MORE

Love gives at a great cost to self. The Father loved the world so much that He sent His Son to die for us – That is a great cost!!!! In the context of Jesus’ sacrifice, this 1 John 3:16 gives us a challenge that may seem overwhelming and impossible. He asks us to share our love with others around us. We do not do this out of duty, but out of compassion. We put our love into practice by meeting other’s needs even at great cost to us. To meet these needs, we may need to sacrifice our time, attention, and often our heart, which can often be more difficult that giving money. We cannot take a genuine interest in the welfare of others unless we are willing to become involved in their interests and their concerns. There is a price to pay for loving others, but I am sure that when you talk to the Lord about His sacrifice on our behalf, He will say that it was worth the cost to redeem us. I continue to learn that that the cost of loving those around me, is worth the cost.… READ MORE

There should be no more distinctive mark of the believer than love 1 John 3:14. No matter how else we may bear our testimony for the Lord, the absence of love nullifies it all (1 Cor. 13:1-3). Love is greater than anything we can say, possess, or give, and if love does not characterize our lives our life will be empty. The reason for this is that God’s greatest demonstration of love was seen at the cross where He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins. We must understand that love is more than the emotional response that we see in movies, Love is manifested not by what we say, but by what we do. Love is an act of the will, and that is why our wills must first be yielded to Christ before we will begin to bear this Characteristic in our lives. The love that comes from our flesh is really selfish in nature while Biblical love (agape) involves self-giving. It is easy to say we love others, and be completely honest and sincere in our expression, yet we often do not see the lonely person in the crowd, we ignore the sick or … READ MORE