“We love because he first loved us.”

1 John 4:19

I used to tease my kids about thinking they were in love when they had a childhood crush. As they got older, I tried to caution them on telling someone they liked, “I love you”. Without fail the summer time seemed to be filled with teenage feelings of being in love. One summer, during my daughter’s early High School years, she was sure that she was destined to be with a boy from another town. She was grounded for breaking a household rule and it happened to be a time when her friends were going to a youth event with the boy she liked. She begged to go, but I didn’t budge. I can still hear her screaming, “You are ruining the most important night of my life!”. A few weeks later she swore that she never even liked “Romeo” any way. Anyone who has raised a teenage daughter knows exactly what I am talking about.
Girls are not the only ones who dream of love. I remember the first time I had gotten up the nerve to pick up the phone (back when they still had a cord) and call a girl I liked. I was in 5th grade. As I told her how I felt about her, my heart was pounding, only to hear her say, “Let’s just be friends”. Ouuch!!!
There are many reasons why love is risky. For one thing, when we love someone how do we know that they will love us back? The examples above are a common “puppy love”. A simple fleeting emotion that comes and goes. When God said, “I love you”, he sealed those words with the shed blood of his only Son. He can’t take it back. It is finished. The amazing thing is he did it before you ever gave your own response. He already loves you. When you were his enemy, he still loved you. This kind of love is beyond compare. This kind of love is what is supposed to be a disciples trademark. We are to love even when others do not love us back. We are to love even when our love is rejected. Love any way, love always. It is evidence that God is in us, because it is humanly impossible to love like this without his help. Love like this is destined to cause you pain and hurt. Look what it did to Jesus. But, it is this kind of love that has the power to transform our world! All because God loved you first.