My dear friends, we must love each other. Love comes from God, and when we love each other, it shows that we have been given new life. We are now God’s children, and we know him. God is love, and anyone who doesn’t love others has never known him. God showed his love for us when he sent his only Son into the world to give us life. Real love isn’t our love for God, but his love for us. God sent his Son to be the sacrifice by which our sins are forgiven. Dear friends, since God loved us this much, we must love each other.
No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is truly in our hearts.
1 John 4:7-12 Contemporary English Version (CEV)
Isn't amazing that an emotion we all experience at one time or another in our lives with someone is an emotion we selectively hold back sharing with everyone? Acknowledging this should make us very glad that God is not like that. He does not play favorites (Romans 2:11). He loved us before we loved Him and He loves us all the same. That's real love.
As children of God, created in His image, we are called to love each other. God's Word speaks to this command time and time again. God has demonstrated His love for us in ways most of us will never be able to imitate. How many of us would give our child's life for a friend? Jesus died once and for all as a sacrifice for sin. He who was without sin, died for ours. As we believe and trust in Him, He asks that we love God and love each other.
As we try to live following the way of Jesus through this troubled world, we can see what not loving each other is doing. Many of the trials and tribulations that occur today are a direct result of hearts that do not love and hearts that have grown cold. This is true of both those who profess to know Christ as Savior and those who don't. The price to pay for hate is just too expensive. Loving each other is free and freely given to each of us from God.
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