December 22
The Measure of Love
1 John 4:9–10
“9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
The beauty of the gospel is not that we have come to God, but God, through Jesus, has come to us. Simply put, He loved us first. As the Jesus Story Book Bible says, this love is a “Never-Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love.” And although we should love God in return, He doesn’t even require that in order to keep loving us. Romans 5:8 says, “God demonstrated His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” This means before we ever had a chance to prove we were worthy of love, God already loved us. This type of love gives and forgives and we should desire to love like Jesus.