This Fathomless Love

a meditation on 1 John 4:7-9

There are some times when the absolute inadequacy of the soul to see and comprehend the things of God comes to the forefront of one’s thoughts.  And as I have pondered the immensity and impossibility of God’s love it has struck me again and again how far above the comprehension of man are the ways and thoughts of God. 

 God is love.  That simple sentence, those three short words, is a mystery in itself.  He is love; love in it’s true and pure form, Love the way it was designed to be.  Who can hope to ever understand God?  Yet it has been told unto us that God has manifested His love towards mankind through His Son Christ Jesus.  It is through the sending of Christ into the world to live and die that sinful man may be justified that we can discern what true love is. 

God’s love is purely selfless.  There was and is no neediness in God’s soul that needed to be filled by mortal love or acceptance.  He was, is and always will remain the great, eternal, unchanging I AM.  There was no merit in our souls that in any sense deserved such a sacrifice.   Yet it was at this juncture, with a High and Holy God reaching down to a lowly and lost people that true love was demonstrated to the universe.  “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us. . .” 

It is this nature of love that we are called to shine forth throughout the world.  Because God sent, because Christ died, we are commissioned to go throughout life with that same love marking and defining our lives.  We are to love – not those who are worthy and deserving but to all without distinction.  We are to love - not just to those who will accept it but without thought of the response of others.  We are to love - not in hopes that our love will be returned; not in any need of our own soul; not simply once but continually and constantly and fervently.   We are to love, that we may be a living testimony to a lost world of a God who is love.