Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been fathered by God and knows God. The person who does not love does not know God because God is love.
Into the Text
Before we can love well, we need to understand where love actually comes from.
Despite what you’ve been told, love doesn’t come from us. According to 1 John 4, love comes from God. In fact, John doesn’t just say that God loves, he says that God is love. Love is not simply something God does. It is who He is.
Seeing love in this way changes everything.
It means that every time you have experienced genuine love, the kind that sacrifices, stays, or chooses you on your worst days, you have seen a glimpse of God. And it means that the love you are capable of giving is only made possible because God first loved you.
We love because He first loved us. His love is perfect. You are able to love others because God first loved you.
So often we try to love people out of our own limited reserves. I know I have. We give and give until we have nothing left. Then we wonder why we feel so empty, burned out, and resentful. Sweet sister, this is what happens when we try to love from our own supply. Our supply may run out, but God’s love is limitless.
When we stay rooted in His love, receiving it, resting in it, and allowing it to fill us, we then have the ability to give love to others. His love flowing through us is what makes our love different from the world’s love because the source of our love is different.
You cannot give what you have not received. So today, before you think about how to love others better, simply receive the love God has for you. Accept it. Let it sink deep into your heart. You, my dear, are loved by the One who holds the whole world and your world in His loving hands.