Various verses from 1 John, chapter 3:
This is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another. (v. 1) We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. (v. 16) Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions. Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God. (vs. 18-19) And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us. (v. 23) The kind of love we come to understand from God’s Word is vastly different from the love we learn from the world. Today, the definition of love seems to be a moving target. Yet to God, love never changes because He is love. He is the Author of Love. And God wants to write a new message of His love on our hearts every day.
How can today’s verses help you keep re-shaping, re-defining your own definition of love? How can it reorient your thinking about the way to love a specific person that comes to mind?
Read once more this time from the Message Bible:
What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it—we’re called children of God! That’s who we really are. (v. 1) This is how we’ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. (v. 16) My dear children, let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice real love. This is the only way we’ll know we’re living truly, living in God’s reality. (vs. 18-19) Again, this is God’s command: to believe in his personally named Son, Jesus Christ. He told us to love each other, in line with the original command. (v. 23) To God, unconditional love is not optional. Love has no on/off switch. Love is to be found, given, accepted, embraced, and given away from knowing the very heart of God, the only endless supply that impacts the course of our lives, every day.
Let’s pray: “Father, thank You that You show us how to love, provide us with the love to share, and then multiply the love we give in Your name. Teach me today to love like You love. As above, so below.”