God Loved Us First

“We love each other because he loved us first.” 1 John 4:19

The Bible tells us in the 3rd book of John that if we love God we must also love each other. It goes as far as to say that if you say you love God, but hate a fellow believer you’re a liar. For if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we can’t see? 

Now you might be thinking that it is easy to love God, who is holy and just, who will never lie, cheat, steal or cut you off in traffic. But these people he created are another story! The truth is, we can (and in fact must) love the people we can see no matter how imperfect and ungodly they are at times because God first loved us. 

You and I are no different than the imperfect people around us. The only reason we have the capacity to love at all is because God first loved us. There is not a human being alive that deserves the unearned love of the God who created us all. And yet, he freely gives his immeasurable love to those who will simply believe. 

Unlike the god of other religions, the God of the Bible, the One True God, came in the flesh, took our place on the cross, paid the price for our sin, and conquered the final enemy of death itself when he rose on the third day. When we gaze upon his beauty and consider the depth of his love for us and the great sacrifice he made, we can easily love each other. We can love each other because God loved us first.