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We have been discussing God’s love for believers in Christ and how they need to respond to it for its influence, effect, and impact to be profoundly felt in their lives.
We established in a previous teaching that we respond to the Father’s love by loving Him. And we love the Father under the New Covenant by keeping His commandment, which is loving one another as Christ has loved us.
Scriptures provide Christ’s love for us as the model, standard, and blueprint of how we love one another (Jn. 13:34; Eph. 5:2).
We need, therefore, to know the various characteristics of Christ’s love for us in order to emulate and demonstrate His love in our relationships. In this first part, we consider four of them:
1) Christ loved us just as the Father loved Him from eternity past through the days of His flesh (Jn 15:9).
2) The Saviour’s love for us was not based on our performance or merits. Christ loved us unconditionally before the world began (Lk. 5:27-32; 1Jn 3:16).
3) Christ loved us selflessly that He chose to lay down His life for us. It was a voluntary act of love and obedience to the Father’s will (Mt. 20:28; Phil. 2:4-8).
4) Christ’s desire was for all to experience His love and salvation regardless of their background or circumstance. So Christ’s love for us was inclusive, embracing all peoples (Mk 1:40-42; Jn 4:1-26).
In the second part, we will discuss other characteristics of the Lord’s love for us. As we reflect on these characteristics, we will be inspired to emulate Christ’s love and be a shining example of God’s love to the world.
GOD’S servant: Peter Collins Obeng
GRACE COVENANT GLORY
