THIS Is Love

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LOVE is the answer… LOVE is all you need… I LOVE pumpkin spice lattes…
 
Have we overused the word “love” to the point that it has lost its meaning and power? From expounding on our favorite NFL team, to whatever it is we’re currently binging on Netflix.
 
When the Bible talks about love, it doesn’t do so in trite or even philosophical terms, dealing in abstractions or in ways that we may construe love into whatever we like.
 
When the Bible wants us to see love, it tells us a story. It tells us about a God who made the world out of His love and took pleasure in it. A God who called a people for Himself and made a covenant with them out of His love. It tells us of a God who went after His people even when they chased after other gods. A God who remained faithful when we were faithless… a God who took on flesh in the form of Jesus and entered our world. A God who was faithful on our behalf, who suffered our death so that we might live.
 
Many years after Jesus died for our sins, one of His followers wrote, ‘This is love: It is not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent His Son as the sacrifice that deals with our sins.’ (1 John 4:10, CEB).
 
We don’t understand love by looking at human displays of love; we don’t glimpse love by beginning with ourselves. We see love by looking at God.
 
And “God,” St. Paul wrote, “shows His love for us, because while we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8, CEB).
 
This Christmas, as we focus on the baby in the manger, let us also see beyond to the cross. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is Love.