1 John 4:7-12 (ESV)

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

In the last post, we looked at the truth that God is all-knowing. In that post I suggested that we can completely trust God in every situation in life, because nothing is unknown to God.

However, I don’t think it’s enough for us to trust God simply because He knows everything there is to know. It is extremely important for us to realize that God is all-knowing, but it’s the fact that God loves us that makes the difference. After all, if God knows everything but does not love, He would be cold and careless.

In 2005, when my dad was diagnosed with colon cancer, it was comforting to know that God knew all things. But I have to admit, that wasn’t enough. I also needed to know that God loved my dad, me, and my family. It was the knowledge that God is love that gave me comfort. Knowing God loved me gave me the most peace.

As His people, whenever we doubt God’s love for us, we need to remember that the greatest way God showed His love for us is that He sent His Son, Jesus, to die so that we might live. For those of us who have heard this truth most of our lives it may be easy for us to forget how big His love for us is. But we should never forget and think often about His amazing love for us.

Think about God’s love as shown in Romans 8:31-39:

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;

we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.