“By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:35
My love for cards began with my mom. She loved spending hours looking for just the right ones with just the right words to express her love to family and friends. She also searched for cards to send to encourage those she thought needed a kind word.
So when Hallmark’s slogan, “Love begins with you,” caught my eye, I couldn’t help but think of my mom. Although I realize the company is trying to reach our deepest emotions in a play to sell us cards, products, and movies, seeing the words touched my heart at the truth behind them.
As a Christian, even more so than Mom’s love for cards, is the truth that love begins with God. 1 John 4:19 explains how “We love because He first loved us.”
When love is extended to us, especially when we haven’t done anything to earn it, it melts our hearts. Often, while out in public, a sweet person with Down Syndrome will spot me, rush over, and begin hugging me, like I’m a long-lost friend or family member.
Occurring multiple times, this sweet outpouring of love with no explanation at first took me by surprise, making me think perhaps I was being mistaken for someone they knew. But now I’ve grown accustomed to it, believing maybe their gentle, loving hearts are picking up on the love of God living within me.
1 John 4:16 explains, “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.”
Their unexpected and unearned expression of love deeply touches my heart, revealing to me what happens when, like them, love begins with us.
As believers in Jesus Christ, is it even possible to have the love of God in us and not love others? As Christians, we are called to let love begin with us. Jesus explained how everyone will know we belong to Him and are His disciples by the way we love one another.
But nowadays, it seems like many Christians have forgotten that loving others is probably the most authentic evidence of a heart that loves God. In fact, if we don’t love others, it’s very telling of our hearts, revealing our true relationship, or lack of relationship, with God. “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:8).
As Christians, our most meaningful relationships in life begin with love, starting with salvation, where God loved us first and reached out to us with His love. Romans 5:8 shares, “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Likewise, John 3:16 explains, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
In receiving salvation, we receive God’s love and His call to love one another. Whether spouse, neighbor, or enemy, we can’t escape God’s instruction to love others as He loves us.
With marriage, He calls husbands to love their wives, as Ephesians 5:25 explains: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her.”
In Mark 12:31, we’re called by God to love our neighbor, which is much more far-reaching than we may believe. We’re even called to love our enemies, with no spiritual grounds to withhold love from those who hate us and persecute us, because in Matthew 5:44, Jesus says, ‘But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.’”
Let’s Pray:
Dear Father,
Thank you for reaching out to love us first. Our hearts are grateful for love beginning with You. All that we know about love comes from You because You are love. Help love to begin with us so that we can love others the way You love us.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen
Photo Credit: ©Anna Kolosyuk/Unsplash
Lynette Kittle is married with four daughters. She enjoys writing about faith, marriage, parenting, relationships, and life. Her writing has been published by Focus on the Family, Decision, Today’s Christian Woman, kirkcameron.com, Ungrind.org, StartMarriageRight.com, and more. She has a M.A. in Communication from Regent University and serves as associate producer for Soul Check TV.
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Originally published Monday, 26 February 2024.
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