This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

1 John 4:10 – 12

I find these words very helpful, it helps me to understand love, divine love, the basic emotion that goes beyond ourselves and our self-interest.

I find myself asking, “How can I love God more?”  That is not a bad question, but John shifts the language to explain something far more profound, and helpful.  Instead of us loving God, he rejoices in the fact that the most important thing is not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

The answer to my question is to look to Jesus and his love, not to my own.  I do not find it very helpful to examine my love or loves, but to know (without totally understanding) the mighty love of God.

What is the love of God?  It is the love that led him to send Jesus, at inestimable cost, to come among us and die as the atoning sacrifice for our self-centered sinfulness.  Huge.

So, herein lies the answer about the love of God, God loved us so much that he sent Jesus to atone for our sins, to rescue us from spiritual death and to give us new life.  That, my friend, is divine love!

Furthermore, John goes on, it is that love of God that gives us love to love one another. We can not fully explain that love but if we love one another like God loves us, then we begin to see into the heart of God and find solace in knowing that that love is in us by the new birth.