God So Loved the World

By Cathy Ramsey

1 Corinthians 13:4-5 defines Christian love – Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

I long to be strong enough to love everyone like this. I honestly feel like I love everyone I know, especially my church family. But I don’t love enough to be patient with everyone all the time, to not get upset with people sometimes, to keep no record of wrongs. I think you can forgive people but still remember they wronged you. However, this is not what God demands of us. He tells us to keep no record of wrong. Will I ever get there?

God is perfect love. Jesus is perfect love. God proved his perfect love for us when he sent his Son to save us from our sins. Jesus loved us so much he died for us.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

Mother Teresa was a very loving, intelligent, and giving person. She said:

If you judge people, you have no time to love them.

It's not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.

I have found the paradox that if I love until it hurts, then there is no hurt, but only more love

Not all of us can do great things but we can do small things with great love.

Bishop Michael Curry's "The Power of Love" sermon at Harry’s and Meghan’s wedding (some parts deleted for this devotional):

The late Dr Martin Luther King Jr once said, and I quote: "We must discover the power of love, the redemptive power of love. And when we do that, we will make of this old world a new world, for love is the only way."

There is something right about it. And there's a reason for it. The reason has to do with the source. We were made by a power of love, and our lives were meant - and are meant - to be lived in that love. That's why we are here.

Ultimately, the source of love is God himself: the source of all of our lives. There's an old medieval poem that says: 'Where true love is found, God himself is there.

The New Testament says it this way: "Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God, and those who love are born of God and know God. Those who do not love do not know God. Why? For God is love."

There's power in love. There's power in love to help and heal when nothing else can.

There's power in love to lift up and liberate when nothing else will.

There's power in love to show us the way to live.

Jesus of Nazareth on one occasion was asked by a lawyer to sum up the essence of the teachings of Moses, and he went back and he reached back into the Hebrew scriptures, to Deuteronomy and Leviticus, and Jesus said: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself."

And then in Matthew's version, he added, he said: "On these two, love of God and love of neighbor, hang all the law, all the prophets, everything that Moses wrote, everything in the holy prophets, everything in the scriptures, everything that God has been trying to tell the world ... love God, love your neighbors, and while you're at it, love yourself."

Someone once said that Jesus began the most revolutionary movement in human history. A movement grounded in the unconditional love of God for the world - and a movement mandating people to live that love, and in so doing to change not only their lives but the very life of the world itself.

I'm talking about power. Real power. Power to change the world.

That's what love is. Love is not selfish and self-centered. Love can be sacrificial, and in so doing, becomes redemptive. And that way of unselfish, sacrificial, redemptive love changes lives, and it can change this world.

"If you don't believe me, just stop and imagine. Think and imagine a world where love is the way." Imagine our homes and families where love is the way. Imagine neighborhoods and communities where love is the way.

Imagine governments and nations where love is the way. Imagine business and commerce where this love is the way.

Imagine this tired old world where love is the way. When love is the way - unselfish, sacrificial, redemptive.

When love is the way, then no child will go to bed hungry in this world ever again.

When love is the way, we will let justice roll down like a mighty stream and righteousness like an ever-flowing brook.

When love is the way, poverty will become history. When love is the way, the earth will be a sanctuary.

When love is the way, we will lay down our swords and shields, down by the riverside, to study war no more.

When love is the way, there's plenty good room - plenty good room - for all of God's children.

"Because when love is the way, we actually treat each other, well... like we are actually family.

When love is the way, we know that God is the source of us all, and we are brothers and sisters, children of God.

Dr King was right: we must discover love - the redemptive power of love. And when we do that, we will make of this old world, a new world.

My brother, my sister, God love you, God bless you, and may God hold us all in those almighty hands of love.

Week four of Advent focuses on what love really is — Christ coming to earth because of His love for us.

For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

In order to know how to love one another, we have to look at the love that sent Jesus to earth to live a life of love and pay the price for all of our sins. It is all about love. Amazingly, we are God's treasure and if we follow Him, He will be our treasure. We can love because He first loved us. This is a love that says, "I am willing to love you no matter what."

In “O Holy Night”, the first two stanzas of the second verse say, “Truly He taught us to love one another, His law is love and His gospel is peace.”

It seems to me that God wants more than anything for everyone to love each other. I believe it is His highest wish for us and He taught us how, if only we can surrender ourselves to Him enough to do this.

Let us pray:

Heavenly Father, thank you for your perfect love for us. Thank you for sending your only Son to us to bring us everlasting life. Please, Father, help us to learn to love more, to be more patient and kinder, to be more giving, to forgive all and forget all wrongs. Father help us to love one another as you have loved us. Your love is the light of the world. We are so blessed by you. In Jesus name, Amen.

O Holy Night: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17kiIIxSdC0&feature=youtu.be