My attention often is drawn back to the amazing, intimate, sacrificial love that God the Father and Jesus demonstrated to us and to the rest of the world. The apostle John experienced this, too. In 1 John chapter 4, John writes: “Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love” [4:7-8 NLT].

But John can’t stop, so he keeps writing: “God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins” [4:9-10].

Still, John can’t stop, so he adds: “Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us” [4:11-12].

John continues to write about this amazing love for three more paragraphs in First John chapter 4 alone, and in dozens of other passages throughout his writings. What love, indeed! It’s what motivates us to keep reaching our world today.

This is Luis Palau.