"What is it that makes a person great, admired by creation, well pleasing in the eyes of God? What is it that makes a person strong, stronger than the whole world; what is it that makes him weak, weaker than a child? What is it that makes a person unwavering, more unwavering than a rock; what is it that makes him soft, softer than wax? -- it is love! What is it that is older than everything? It is love. What is it that outlives everything? It is love. What is it that cannot be taken but itself takes all? It is love. What is it that cannot be given but itself gives all? It is love. What is it that perseveres when everything falls away? It is love. What is it that comforts when all comfort fails? It is love. What is it that endures when everything is changed? It is love. What is it that remains when the imperfect is abolished? It is love. What is it that witnesses when
prophecy is silent? It is love. What is it that does not cease when the vision ends? It is love. What is it that sheds light when the dark saying ends? It is love. What is it that gives blessing to the abundance of the gift? It is love. What is it that makes the widow's gift an abundance? It is love. What is it that turns the words of the simple person into wisdom? It is love. What is it that is never changed even though everything is changed? It is love; and that alone is love, that which never becomes something else."? (Soren Kierkegaard, Works of Love)

1. God is love. God is the source of love. Love is the gift of God. God shows us the meaning of love in sending his Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: God loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Love is God's sacrificial saving action so that we might find life eternal.

2. All people need to know that they are loved. Only an awareness of God's love can enable us to love others. The lack of love in childhood and life is a reason why so many people find it hard to love others. They go through life resenting the parents who deprived them of such love, and yet those parents may themselves not have received love and were incapable of giving what they did not have. (e.g. Pat Conroy's father, the movie My Old Lady's protagonists). They cannot give what they haven't had. The only way to break the cycle of lovelessness is to experience God's love in Christ directly and through others who love us.

3. God's love can transform us. Even when we cannot naturally love others, we can love them when we have received God's love. Lack of love is lack of knowledge of God who is love. We can love because God first loved us. When we receive that love by faith his love is made complete in us over the years. He has given us his Spirit to enable us to love. We can know and rely on the love God has for us every day. It does not change.

4. The love of God gives us confidence on the Day of Judgment. Perfect love drives out fear. When you have received the love of God in Christ you should not live in fear of punishment. God loves you. His grace in Christ is unearned and undeserved but nonetheless real. Grace is the gift of God's love. The motivation of God is love not fear.

Gary Burge is professor of New Testament at Wheaton College, Illinois. He teaches mature young men and women who come from strong evangelical churches and families. He writes that their reflex is to please God so that he would continue to favor them. They had not learned to please God because he already favored them. Because of this reality many Christians are troubled, and many have a genuine fear of God. The following was written by a 21-year-old student who was a strong, knowledgeable evangelical.

I fear like God punishes me for sins all the time. I feel that there is always something I am being punished for. I know that is impossible because there are not enough minutes in the day for God to punish us. I probably should not call it punishment, but that is the way I feel about God's justice. I know of God's love and blessings for me and for that I am eternally grateful and thankful. But I live with this fear that one mess-up and I will be punished again.

He goes on to conclude: "Whenever our perception of God is shaped by fear and anxiety, worry perhaps over losing his affection, we have not plumbed the depths of God's love. We have not experienced his commitment to us." (Gary M. Burge, The NIV Application Commentary on the Letters of John, p.197)

"Love breaks down the barrier that shuts most of us from heaven. That thought is too much for us really, yet it is the central truth of the spiritual life. And that loving self-yielding to the Eternal Love -- that willingness that God shall possess, indwell, fertilize, bring forth the faith of His Spirit in us, instead of our own -- is the secret of all Christian power and Christian peace." (Evelyn Underhill, An Anthology of the Love of God)

5. When we have received love from God in Christ we can love one another. That love is expressed in relationships. "Love is patient and kind. It is not envious, it does not boast. It is not proud, rude or self-seeking. It is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." (1 Cor.13)

What is your image of God? John tells us that God is love. He is loving kindness, full of steadfast love. "God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom he has given us...God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:5,8) "Love comes from God. If we love one another God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him."

(Ted's blog is found at www.tedschroder.com SOUL FOOD: DAILY DEVOTIONS FOR THE HUNGRY, Vol.4, October, November and December is now available on Amazon.)