Why do you love who you love?  Shared interests or experiences? Perhaps a mutual friend who brought you together? Maybe they have a trait that you really admire.  John tells us that there is a clear reason to love others. We love others because of God’s great love for us.  Let’s look at His words today in I John 4.

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 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. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

John reminds us that loving others is our responsibility because of the fact that we are children of God.  We do not love others because of any redeeming quality that they have but we love them because they also are His.  After all God loves us not because of our own redeeming qualities but simply because He does.  We are told to love our brothers and sisters, our neighbors, and even our enemies.  This can be a challenging thing.  It’s easy to love the people who we are naturally drawn to.  It’s more challenging to love others that we aren’t.  That is the love that is important and life changing though.  Loving those that seem “unlovable” to us.  That type of love can really make a difference in someone’s life.  Today and every day make it a point to show love to someone who it is difficult for you to love and watch and see how God uses that in both their life and yours.

In His Grip,
Pastor Dave