As we celebrate LOVE during this Advent* season, let’s keep John 3:16-17 in our minds:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
In English, we have one word for love that could mean all types of love from empathy, friendship, romantic, to God’s unconditional love. We say, “I love strawberries,” with the same enthusiasm that we say “I love you,” to our grandmother when there is an obvious difference in those types of love.
In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
1 John 4:9-10
God’s love for His people was manifested (shown) to us through His Son, Jesus, coming to earth as a baby, living and walking on this earth for 33 years as fully God and fully man.
When we read Ephesians 2, we get a good picture of what we were before we knew Christ. In these verses, the Apostle Paul reminded the Ephesian Christ-followers who and what they were before Christ saved them. The verses also serve as reminders for Christ-followers today. Before our salvation, we were spiritually dead, in bondage to the devil, and following whatever desires and lusts our hearts conjured.
1And you were dead in your trespasses and sins 2in which you previously lived according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient. … 4But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, 5made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace! …
Verse four is one of several glorious phrases in all of Scripture—But God. This phrase indicates that although we are dreadful sinners and everything seems hopeless when God intervenes, everything changes.
Did you catch that? God, who is love and the source of real love, loved us so greatly that He saved us! Our salvation has nothing to do with anything we have done, it is solely based on God’s love, grace, and mercy!
How do we respond to the announcement that Christ is coming? We sing of the boundless, tireless, changeless, mighty, and endless love of God!
Here are some wonderful carols and hymns to guide your meditations on God’s love:
Love Came Down at Christmas
The Love of God
Love Divine
Love Divine, All Love’s Excelling
Jesus Thy Boundless Love to Me
Jesus Loves Even Me
Jesus Loves Me
God’s Boundless Love
Love Lifted Me
*Compilations Excerpted from ADVENT: Meditations for Addicts, by Shirley Crowder & Mark E. Shaw
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