Dear Friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1 John 4:16 HCSB
If we don’t know God is love, we can’t know God. He loves us in a way that we will never experience love from another human being. John 3:16 tells us God loved us so much, He sent His son to die so that whoever believes in Him would not die but have everlasting life. Romans 5:8 tells us God shows this great love for us because He sent His Son to die for us while we were still sinners.
He will take us as we are. Knowing the God we serve is extremely important. We can’t have a relationship with someone we don’t know. We must understand it’s all about the relationship we have with Jesus Christ or God, the Son. We have to know Him in order to love Him.
Romans 5:8 tells us God proves His own love for us in that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. I want you to put this in the proper perspective. Jesus Christ died for us while we were his enemies. Romans 5:7 tells us rarely will someone die for someone who is a just person although someone may die for a good person. But Jesus died for us, while we were sinners.
Colossians 1:21-22 says, “Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds because of your evil actions. But now He has reconciled you by His physical body through His death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before Him-” We were God’s enemy, but Jesus died to reconcile us and present us faultless and blameless before God the Father.
Most of us don’t enter into a romantic relationship without first getting to know the other person. We want to get an idea of who they truly are. We want to know their likes and dislikes. We want to know what we have in common and where we tend to disagree. We get to know them by spending time with them and through heartfelt conversation.
So today, I want to encourage you to get to know Jesus. He came to earth fully man and fully God with the sole purpose of dying for you and me. He came to save us from our sins so that we could be reconciled with God the Father. He came to die so we could have eternal life. Our conversations with him are through prayer where we talk to Him and through studying His Word, where he talks to us.
I don’t expect you to surrender your life to Him unless you truly get to know Him. Take time to get to know Him through Bible study and prayer. Get into a good Bible teaching church so that you can learn more and more about Jesus and the great love He has for you.
I want to encourage you to participate in Bible studies where you can discuss the Bible to develop a deeper meaning of Scripture. I want you to see how Jesus is there from Genesis to Revelation. He wants everyone to be saved including you.
In a little over a week, we will celebrate the birth of baby Jesus to a virgin mother. We will sing and see nativity scenes which show the baby and His earthly parents in that stable with the animals. We will read about the shepherds and the wise men.
But there is so much more I want you to know about Jesus. To know Him is to love Him and I strongly encourage you to get to know Him today. His great love for us is hard to comprehend. Why would someone love us when we do things to break their heart?
Why would someone love us when we go against their commands? But He loves us enough to welcome us with open arms. He loves us enough to cleanse us from all unrighteousness if we will only come to Him (1 John 1:9). He loves enough that He died for us while we were still His enemy.
I’m not asking you to love Him without getting to know Him. I’m simply asking you to get to know Him. I know if you get to know Him, you will love Him.
Have a great day!