Our Bible verse for today: “But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8 (CSB)
Our thought for today: “Love is God’s greatest attribute”
Everything about God is great and everything about God is perfect, but God’s love is His greatest attribute. All of God’s other attributes help us to better understand and appreciate the depths of His love for us. For instance, since God is self-existent, His love had no beginning; because He is eternal, His love has no end; because He is infinite, His love has no limit; because He is holy, His love is perfectly pure; because He is gracious, He loves us even when we don’t deserve to be loved.
God is also incomprehensible, and so His love is so deep and so expansive that we simply cannot fully appreciate the scope of it. Fortunately we can see manifestations of His love for us which help us to begin to grasp the scope and significance of it. Paul expressed the most important manifestation of God’s love in Romans 5:8 where we read that even though we were sinners, God sent His Son to die for us. Certainly the most famous expression of this great truth was given to us by Jesus Himself in John 3:16 when He told us, “For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but will have eternal life.”
Another important manifestation of God’s love for us is described by the Apostle John in 1 John 4:18, “There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear …”
Fear comes from the belief that someone or something may cause us harm. It is a painful and troubling emotion that arises from the belief that we will be hurt or harmed in some way. But God loves us too much to hurt us. Even in those times when He must discipline us or allow us to suffer the consequences of our own poor choices, He does so out of His great love for us and with the intention of bringing us back into the center of His good and perfect will (which is the best and safest place for us to be).
God’s love for us is so great that He desires our everlasting welfare, and He will always act towards us in ways that are in our own best interest. If we truly understood that, there would be no sense of fear. Instead we would know Him as the God of all comfort and we would have complete trust in Him.
I believe love to be God’s greatest attribute. Spend some time this morning praising Him for the good and perfect and unlimited love He has for you.
Oak Hill Baptist Church