Love is a scary thing for many of us.
It is glamorized in a way to hide the inherent definition but requires our greatest vulnerability.
To be known fully.
Naked.
Imperfect.
Broken.
A needy person.
Bad breath in the morning.
Good days and bad.
In sickness and in health.
Destitute.
Sinful.
Why is it so hard to accept that love requires everything from us?
Maybe because it is often guised as something else: to be known but always accepted even in error.
This inherently contradicts our faith in so many ways, however.
God loves me FIRST.
He knows every hair on my head, error I have made, sin I have done, and will ever do.
Yet He loves me completely.
Then He makes me more like Him.
It isn't about just loving and leaving me as is.
I am being conformed into His beautiful and perfect image throughout my life.
This is what then enables me to love others: to be patient, kind, hold no record of wrong, etc. (I Corinthians 13) through my connection to the source of love, God Himself.
Love always starts with Him.
God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. We love each other because he loved us first.
1 John 4:16-19
Comments