Real Love

I John 3:7-24

I can hear in my mind an old 80's radio tune. The band lead achingly croons, "I wanna know what love is!" As I recall, though they topped the charts, Foreigner and their song never quite answered the question.

Our Daily Life reading today answers the question. This is the other John 3:16, I John 3:16: "We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us."

The claim inferred by the converse is also quite clear: if Jesus doesn't give His life, and if I don't grasp the gift of that, I will never truly know what real love is.

But, because Jesus has given His life for us, we can understand love. We live on the receiving end of real love, and that changes us. It moves us to faith (see v. 23). And, it moves us to live sacrificially, living with great concern for others, willing to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters (v.17). This changes how we view our wealth, how we view people in need, how we act and spend and live compassionately. Jesus' real love does all of that in us. It does not allow us live by cheap words, but by expensive actions that accompany words. His love in us makes us confident when we stand before God (v.19).

And, then follows this verse I have long loved (v.20), "Even if we feel guilty, God is greater than our feelings" . (The NIV says it this way, "whenever our hearts condemn us... God is greater than our hearts".) Because of the love of Jesus, because of His sacrifice that declares His love and shows me what true love is: even when I feel unlovable, He proves me wrong. Real love does change us, but real love also knows there will be plenty days we won't feel changed. On those days, Jesus' real love sets our heart at rest.

-PPaul