Love

WHY CHRISTMAS? LOVE.

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us” 1 John 4:7-12.

Christ appeared to give us eternal life, freedom and victory. But above it all, God sent His son to demonstrate His love for us. This good news is for everyone (Luke 2:10).

The world has come up with many popular definitions of love. Noted poet, Robert Frost defines love as a desire to be irresistibly desired; Philosopher Plato defined love as a desire for the perpetual possession of the good. However, real love is from God and not from the world (1 John 4:7).

Only those who have been borne of God are capable of loving others the way God loves. Every part of God’s being is love. In fact, the bible clearly states that God Himself is love (1 John 4:8).

God did not only define love; God demonstrated His love for us.

“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him” 1 John 4:9 .

In His love, God sent His only begotten Son to become man. He showed Himself tempted and yet had no sin. He offered Himself to die on the cross to free us.

GOD’S DEMONTRATION OF LOVE.

1. God made a decision to love us.
   

   “ This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” 1 John 4:10.
   
   “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” Romans 5:8.
   

   Before we became Christians, we did not honor God with our words or with our actions and yet, God already loved us. He loved us even before we lived changed lives. He loved us even when we were sinners and unworthy of His love.
   
   
2. God freely gives his love to us.
   

   “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him” 1John 4:9.
   

   In the ancient days, ancient Israelites and Canaanites worshipped a sun god named Molech, to whom sacrifices of humans, including children, are offered. Our God chose to give Himself freely as a sacrifice so that we may live through Him.
   

   “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” Isaiah 9:6.
   

WHY CHRISTMAS? BECAUSE OF GOD’S LOVE.

One of the attributes of Jesus Christ is that He is the Prince of Peace. We can never have peace if we are incapable of loving others in the same way that Christ loved us.**