The Highest 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”.
1 John 4:7 & 8 (NIV)
Sometimes the greatest truth can be best expressed in the simplest way. For example, the spiritual that goes, “My God is so high you can’t get over him.”
That’s pretty high.
The Bible also tells us that God has no beginning and has no end. I can’t really understand that.
Can you? There is no analogy I can come up with that makes it totally clear.
Another thing the Bible tells us is that God is love. Not that love is just one of His many attributes, but that He is love. All that God is and does is love.
In other words, when God creates, He creates in love. And also, and maybe more urgent for us to know, is that when God judges, He judges in love.
We’re not used to that kind of love. Maybe that’s because most of us put limits on our love, restricting love just to those who love us. We want something in return for our love or we don’t give it.
God isn’t like that. He loves us even when we don’t love Him.
God’s love is expressed through His grace. No matter how well behaved we try to be, none of us deserve God’s favour. Yet God loves us anyway, and nothing we have done or can do, will take us beyond His loving reach.
The Apostle John wrote something that is the ultimate encouragement to me. I hope it is for you too. He wrote:
“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:27-30) (NIV)
That’s a love that is “so high you can’t get over it.” Or around it. Or away from it.
Prayer
Great God of love, thank you that no one can snatch me out of your hand. Thank you that, even when I stray from you, you are still there and that you surround me with your love. Thank you that your love is so high, I can’t get over it! Help me to love others with your love through Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Study by Joseph Tkach