The Love of God

JOHN MANIATTY

We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 1 John 4:16

To know the love of God is the greatest joy and blessing available to
mankind, and it is found in the revelation of Jesus Christ. God loves
people so much that He sent His son, Jesus, to become the payment for our sin through His death and resurrection, so that everyone who believes in Him and His sacrifice for us, can have eternal life (see John 3:16). Believing God’s love is not a matter of our thinking about it. We come to know and believe God’s love because He reveals Jesus to us and our need for a savior; it’s not something we accomplish, He accomplishes it. The truth of the matter is recorded in 2 Corinthians 6:2, “At the acceptable time I listened to you, and on the day of salvation I helped you.”

Once we have been born again through faith in Jesus, we enter into the unfolding and outworking of “the greatest love story ever told.” Since the love of Christ surpasses knowledge, while we are on this earth it will require the continuing revelation of Jesus to fill us up to all the fulness of God (see Ephesians 3:17-19). It is as we abide in Jesus, day after day, that we come to more fully know His heart and His love, and His love more completely motivates and controls all we do.

Knowing His love, in all its fulness, should safeguard us from the love of the world which so clamors for our affection. What fleeting treasure does the earth have that could ever compare to the eternal love of God? Knowing the love of God keeps us secure and steadfast when others reject us because they have rejected Him. Knowing the love of God enables us to be merciful and compassionate to others, even when they persecute us for our faith in Jesus. Our confidence in the love of Christ draws us to His throne of grace every time we need mercy and grace to help us when we are tempted. As we know more and more of His love, we become a fearless people, because His perfect love casts out all fear.

“So let us know, let us press on to know the LORD.
His going forth is as certain as the dawn;
And He will come to us like the rain,
Like the spring rain watering the earth.” Hosea 6:3

agape,
---john