Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God because God is love.

1 John 4: 7-8

Love. Perhaps no other topic in the universe has been talked about, sang about or bandied about as much as the topic of love. Some of us grew up believing that love was this breathless wonder, this overpowering emotion that can leave one breathless or set one’s heart racing uncontrollably. Such love is worldly and often fickle; like froth in a coffee cup it frequently loses air and goes flat.

Writing to the first century church, John states that true faith compels us to love one another even as God has loved us. True love, agape love, is not the stuff of poetic expression or of lyrical prose and music but it is a love which is expressed in action, and no one does action better than the Almighty God himself who made love real by sending Jesus to live among us and die for us.

This is a love that left the glories of heaven willingly and came to live among the filth of this earth. And God continues to show us this love through the life-giving presence of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. This is a love that hang on the cross uttering not a mumbling word, except to declare grace, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do (Luke 23:24). It is a love more reliable than the air we breathe or the ground we walk on. It is a love that does not demand a pre-nuptial or separation agreement. It is a love with no take backsies.

Do you want to gain eternal life? The most important thing you can do is love others as God has loved you, freely, reliably and lavishly (1 Corinthians 13: 1-3).

Almighty God, teach me to love. Give me the strength and willingness to lay down all criticisms, prejudices, grudges and hatred. Then clothe me with your love. Amen.