The Full Expression

1 John 4:7-12

Anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. (1 John 4:8)

ONE OF THE MOST PROMINENT biblical themes is the love of God. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the most distorted; people have turned “God is love” into “love is God,” which is not at all the same thing. Aside from this, his love can also seem inaccessible. Despite its prevalence shown throughout the Bible, we somehow manage to agree with it emphatically in our minds but question it incessantly in our hearts.

You have most likely experienced a curious phenomenon—that it’s much easier to assure someone else of God’s love than it is to believe it for yourself. We have lingering questions and deep-down doubts about how God’s love applies to us. We assume that his love is part of his job description, something he has to offer to all of his children but not necessarily something he is passionate about, at least with regard to us personally. In other words, we can easily believe God loves us because he has to but not so easily believe that he loves us because he wants to.

But he does. He delights in his love for each of us, not in spite of our unworthiness but even because of it. It’s true affection. Like any loving parent, he will not endorse everything we do or affirm our sinful tendencies, but he nevertheless loves us with deep, relentless affection. If we don’t know that—if we never feel it and do not believe it deep in our hearts—we will not be able to love others well. And we will not be able to become the “full expression” of the love of God for those around us (1 John 4:12).

That’s the direction we are headed, at least in theory. God calls us to be that full expression of his love, which means he first insists that we experience the full expression of his love. Soak in it and relish it without reservation. Doing so frees you to see yourself with the same delight he has for you and then to show that delight to others.

{Father, expand the capacity of my heart, my mind, and my spirit to embrace the fullness of your love. Transform me with it. Make me an instrument of your love. Amen.