The Word of the Lord
December 17th
Love
“Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”
1 John 4:7-8
Daily Devotional
December 17th
I love chocolate cake. I love my wife. Is this love I have for cake and my wife the same? If my wife falls down in the middle of a road, I would do all I could to save her. Endangering and sacrificing myself for her. If there was a delicious chocolate cake in the road I would stand and watch as the large truck wheels smashed the cake flat. It’s not the same love.
This world misuses the phrase “God is love”. This does not simply mean everything is sweet, beautiful, and happy. Love is so much more.
If a husband has an affair and asks his wife for forgiveness, can she forgive him if he is unrepentant? There is one thing that God’s love cannot do: it cannot forgive the unrepentant sinner.
His Word tells us in 1 John 2:2 that God sent His only begotten Son to suffer our punishment as a propitiation (substitution) for our sins. God’s desire for us to repent is equal with His desire to hold us accountable for our sins.
Since God swore that He would punish all sin, can He overlook our sin? If He just clears the guilty, then He is a liar. If He is a liar, then He isn’t holy and if He isn’t holy, He isn’t love.
God’s love did not begin at creation, at the manger, or at the cross; God’s love began in eternity past. He loves us so much He sent His only begotten Son.
The firm stance to hold all accountable and provide us a hope of salvation from our sin.
God is Holy.
God is love.
1 John 2:2
And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
King James Version (KJV)
Publisher
Public Domain
About Lakeland FBC
Lakeland First Baptist seeks to glorify God by encouraging all people into a relationship with Jesus Christ, discipling them in spiritual growth, and equipping them to make disciples of the nations.