Loving Because God First Loved Me

In summary of 1 John 4:19 it says, “We love because he first loved us.”

Bottom Line:

We love because God loved us first.

What this means to me:

God is love. I should love in response to him reaching out and loving me first.  He wants to extend himself through me in how I love. This verse says “We love because [God] first loved us” 1 John 4:19 (NIV). God is always first in everything. He takes the initiative. The only reason I can love God or anybody else is because God first loved me. And he showed me that love by sending Jesus Christ to Earth to die and take on the penalty for my sin. He showed that love by creating me. He showed that love by giving me everything I have in this life. In order to learn how to love other people, I really need to understand and feel how much God loves me. When I feel that unconditional love, I can start cutting people a lot of slack. I won’t be as angry as I’ve been in the past. I’ll be more patient. I’ll be more forgiving. I’ll be more merciful. I”ll show other people grace. The reason for others being judgmental, sarcastic, angry, self righteous, and always putting other people down, is because they’re putting themselves down. They don’t feel good about themselves. They don’t feel loved. They don’t feel forgiven. They don’t feel grace. They feel guilty. They feel bad about themselves. And if they feel bad about themselves, they certainly don’t want anyone else feeling good about themselves. I’m learning that I cannot give to others what I have not received myself. Unlovely people are unloved people. Hurt people hurt people. I need to remind myself how much God loves me and let it heal my heart so his love can flow through me. It will be impossible for me to love others until I feel loved myself. God’s love is there, I just need to embrace this in my thinking. The Bible says, “We know and rely on the love God has for us” (1 John 4:16a). Today I will consider How I show love to others and begin basing my love on the love God has for me.