29 Jun God is Love (Part 4): We can share God’s love
“Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” –1 John 4:11
The practical implication of being reconciled to the source of love is that the Christian is not only loved but is also enabled to love. Romans 5:5 says, “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Because the Holy Spirit puts the love of God into the root of our new nature, we can bear fruit that begins with love. As Galatians 5:22 says, “The fruit of the Spirit is love.”
In addition to being the source of all love, God has also defined love for us:
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.11
Jesus himself said that this kind of supernatural Trinitarian love would be among the chief marks of a Christian church. In John 13:35 he said, “By this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you have a love for one another.”
According to the Bible, the mark of Christian maturity and true spirituality is love. And, the more we understand and experience the love of God the more loving we become toward God and others.
Is there any area in the definition of love above that you need to focus on improving in?
11 1 Cor. 13:4–8.
