Love, Defined

“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

1 John 4:10 · NKJV

John is defining the word the whole world uses loosely, and he starts by clearing away our contribution: not that we loved God.

Love is defined by an action God took. He loved, He sent, and His Son answered everything justice could ask concerning our sins. Propitiation is an old word with warm insides. It means the offense has been fully answered, and what remains is welcome.

This matters most on the days your love for God feels thin. Prayer has gone quiet, worship feels like going through the motions, and you start to wonder whether the relationship has cooled so much on your end that it must be cooling on His. John settled that before you asked. The love that holds you was never measured by the temperature of your devotion. It was measured at the cross, where God answered every charge against you before you had felt a single warm thing toward Him.

So your relationship with God did not begin with your reach, and it is not sustained by your grip. It began in His heart and was secured by His Son. You love because He loved first, and the order never reverses.

The love came first, and it came all the way. You live loved before you lift a finger.

Go deeper: Loved First →