Love

In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

1 John 4:10

There is something in the character of God and the culture of heaven that resulted in Jesus Christ coming to earth to die for the human race. Was it kindness? Compassion? Empathy? Sympathy? As Godlike as those and other traits are, the Bible seems to focus on one trait as the defining characteristic of God: love. First John 4, verses 8 and 16 say that God is love, and the world’s favorite Bible verse, John 3:16, says that it was because God “loved the world” that He sent Jesus to save us. Heaven is, and will be, brimming with love.

But the love of God is not for heaven alone; it is freely available for us to experience while on earth. Indeed, the “love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:5). Nothing can “separate us from the love of God” (Romans 8:39). And our hearts are continually being directed “into the love of God” (2 Thessalonians 3:5).

If you are feeling unloved, you do not have to wait for heaven to experience the reality of God’s love. You can experience it now by believing in the gift of His love, Jesus Christ.

No less a person than God is needful to assure us of God’s love.

RICHARD SIBBES^a