19 We love because he first loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen (1 John 4:19-20)
If we summed up the story of the Gospel in one word, it would be Love. Many of us know this but probably know the least about this enigmatic topic. Ask 50 people to define love, and you will get 50 different answers. Our culture is obsessed with it – just take a look on social media and at the magazine rack. Yet when we define love and the depth of it, we must look at the works of Christ and recognize our habitual conditional love.
Love always costs something
It is easy to say we love like Christ, but it is an unnatural clash against our being and a scary proposition. John reminds us of this as well as reveals the correlation between our horizontal and vertical love. If we want to love our Lord, we must love our neighbor.
Love empowers
The significance of the initializing love of Christ is that it gives us both the freedom and power to love the unlovable. Freedom to love without consequence or punishment and power to love those who we feel incapable of. Today, love unnaturally. Rely on the spirit of the Lord to go before you in fierce love. Pray to the Father of lights help you love as he has loved you. The world is yet to see the love of the reckless and lovesick saint.
Matt simon blog 