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LOVE

Sam Stringer

Jan 26, 2025

But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by
works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us,
through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured
out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His
grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Titus 3:4-7

What does it mean to love someone? Hmm, can I be honest with you? I think love has been one
of the hardest concepts for me to grasp in life. It’s not that I don’t love, but I have often felt weird
around the concept, quite frankly. So many times I’d hear Christian songs about love and I’d sit
there feeling like it was such a foreign concept. I can’t explain very well to you why, but love left
me quite skeptical; I simply didn’t understand it.

Let me take this small passage to remind you and me of what love looks like. God takes it upon
Himself to look upon us, to look at our sinful state, to have compassion upon us, to do all the
redemptive work to not only forgive us but to also give us a relationship with Him and provide
eternal life as well as a countless list of things done for our good because of the choice to love
us.

Love looks like: His kindness towards us.

Love looks like: His mercy towards us.

Love looks like: His determination and work to save us.

Love looks like: His washing us in regeneration and renewing us with the Holy Spirit.

Love looks like: pouring out the Holy Spirit upon His people abundantly through Jesus.

Love looks like: justifying us by His grace that we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

God does all of these things towards us not only because He chooses to love us, but because
God is love. He is the definition of love. He is the Definer of love. He is the Prime Example of
love. Jesus’ death on the cross is the supreme model of what it means to love others, because
He died in our place so we would not have to incur the necessary wrath of God for our sin. He
gave us His record so God would relate to us on that basis and not our own. It wasn’t because
of what He would get in return for doing it, but because God is loving, period. God doesn’t need
us to be complete. That love of His runs deep.

If you’ve forgotten or have begun to doubt the love of God in your life, I encourage you, as I
encourage myself, to look upon Scriptures like these to remember that so much was done to
secure a right standing with God, to have an ability to relate to Him freely, to have hope for the
future, and to be used by Him to accomplish His plans. The love of God is His looking out for
our good and doing that necessary work where we could not. To love others, for us, is to choose
to look out for their good, not just in the moment, but eternally, too, and not because of how it
makes us look or what we might get as a result, but because it is good and right to love others
and glorifies God. To love God means that we seek to please Him and to bring Him glory
through our lives. Rekindle your love as you remember the love of God.

Be brave, be blessed,

Sam Stringer

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Braver Than Lions

©2024 by Braver Than Lions

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