Love and Bad Investments

We love Him because He first loved us. 1 John 4:9

God's love for us is a topic that we will be thinking about, and marveling at, for all of eternity. But there is one interesting point about His love that I want us to be occupied with this week. God's love for us makes very little sense on a human level. When we say we love something we usually say why. I love salty food because it tastes good and speeds the day when I will be with Jesus (if doctors are to be believed), another loves a person for their looks, a person loves their truck because it is so useful or dependable. You may find the one who loved his truck last week hating in this week because it broke down and will now cost them money. You may see marriages falling apart because the "thrill" of attraction that they were built on is no longer there. If something, or someone, is loved for their usefulness the love will only last as long as the usefulness continues. This is the only way natural man is capable of loving, and we often fear that God loves like we love. But the Bible gives us some insight into this:

"We love Him because He first loved us" 1 John 4:9

"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8

"Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love," Ephesians 1:3

God's love is not, and was not ever based on how valuable, how worthy, or how wonderful you are. It is fully and solely rooted in HIS character, by HIS grace. And that is comforting! You did nothing to earn it, you can do nothing to lose it, God's love for you was demonstrated at the cross and remains at that intense level of love 24 hours a day, when you are good, when you are bad, when you are secure and when you are insecure. That is exciting, and it's available to every person who dares to believe the wonderful message of the gospel:

"...for I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures..." (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)