1 John 3:1: “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God! And that is what we are!”

Some versions use the phrase “behold what manner of love” which calls us to stop and ponder the reality of this amazing truth. To behold means to sense and see with awakened understanding and what we are to sense, see and marvel at is the great love God has given us. Today we have lost the marvel of His love, a love that we all need. It’s not something that we just need to know about but love that we need to experience. His love has the power to impact our present and redirect our future. It is something that will ease the pain of broken hearts, and shattered dreams, giving us peace for our souls. It is where we can find our value and builds our confidence because His love tells us that we matter, that we are accepted. The love of God is unlike any other love that we can experience there is no other like it. It is greater than a parent’s love, deeper than the love of a spouse. A love so lavish it is foreign to us because it is an out of this World love yet an unfailing love that was proven here in our world on the cross.

Right before chapter 3 John used the phrase “born of Him” in 2:29 because when we receive God’s Son as Lord and Savior we are born into a new spiritual family where God the Creator becomes our Father. He does this because of His great love which He demonstrated for all mankind on the cross so that we can become the children of God. If you have accepted His love you are now related to the One who is the Divine Creator of the Universe, the One you can now call Dad. As His kids we are called to practice righteousness which begins by faith and ends in love. If we will accept God’s love it will impact our lives because God’s love:

• Equalizes

In our society we are all placed into different categories and groups because of our education, economics, politics, race and yet in the eyes of God we are all equal. No matter where we come from or where we’ve been, what I love is that we are all on equal ground when it comes to the love of God. God’s love reaches to the lowest places from the bottom of the barrel and in the gutter of life where the homeless lie all the way to the palace on a hilltop. Jesus Christ died on the cross for everyone equally and He loves all of His kids the same.

• Endures

Not only do we need to be loved but like food it is an ongoing need and the good news is that God will not stop loving us no matter what. The Love of God endures time, trials and transgressions He will not quit loving us. Many people live in fear that there will come a time in their relationship that they will stop being loved. In our human relationships often this is because of something that we do and the person who loves us just quits loving us. Yet in our relationship with God that is an unnecessary fear because the love of God endures in spite of us! In an ever-changing world God’s love is the one continual, constant, and certain thing in our lives.

• Emancipates

When we are saved our sins are washed by the blood of Jesus and we are cleansed, liberated and set free, no longer a slave to sin. You may be in bondage, enslaved feeling trapped by the chains you have tried to break, oh you’ve tried to get free pulling and stretched with all your strength but to no avail. I want you to know that you can be free, emancipated and liberated through the blood of Jesus Christ. If you come to Him and confess your sins His love will break the chains of sin and set your free.

• Elevates

There have been many programs over the years that have tried to get homeless people off the streets by setting them up in apartments and arranging for them to have jobs but most of the time in a short while they just ended up back on the streets.  Why, because even though there environment was changed their nature was the same and on the inside nothing had changed. When we experience the love of God we are cleansed by the blood of Jesus from the inside out. God reaches down and lifts us up out of the miry clay, and places us upon a rock, a sure and steadfast foundation. We become a new creation, old things pass away, and behold all things are become new. No matter how well intentioned our programs may be, apart from Christ they don’t change and whatever increase we see, whatever elevation, it is temporal at best and destined to fall. Our greatest need is not educational, environmental or economical it is love which can only be met by Christ. How great is the love the Father has lavished on us? Why don’t you find out and let Him satisfy your greatest need with a love that is complete and forgiving?

Ephesians 3:17-19

17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. 18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. 19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

• The height.

How High? Psalm 36:5 says “Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens” Height here is more than just a simple term of measurement, it refers to the utmost and the vastness of God’s love.  When we talk about volume we are describing the highest possible noise level but Paul isn’t just describing volume here he is also describing the quality of God’s love. For many of us, God’s love is something new and one of the ways that we get to know something new is to compare it to something we are already familiar with. As people, we are constantly comparing and contrasting what we don’t know with what we do. When we have a computer program update and we need to learn what is new we tend to try the same commands that we used for the old one. Sometimes that works and often it doesn’t, some things are similar and others are different, yet we evaluate and compare the new to what we know. I think the same is also true with God’s love, in our desire to understand it we compare it to the love we’ve known from other people. Sometimes that works, and sometimes it doesn’t. Some have been blessed with genuine love from others and for them it is easy to say “God’s love is like this only much better!” Yet the truth is, even for those who have experienced great love from others, when it comes to God’s love, it surpasses anything we’ve ever known. Comparing it with what we know will always pale in comparison to what it really is, that is why Paul prays that we will experience the immensity and freshness of His love in a personal way not a comparative one.

People come to faith in Christ not so much because of someone’s brilliant arguments that convince them of the truth but because they experience the truth that God is crazy about them. As God’s people we should be so “marinated” in God’s love that is oozes out of us and becomes a great aroma when we are put to the fire. We may fear trials but they are only a platform to spread God’s love in a world that is starving for love. The fiery trials will release the aroma of what is in us and if it is His love people will smell it and come running. So how do I measure God’s love? I see its height in God having “blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3) and in His raising us up and seating us “with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6).”

•             The depth.

How deep? This word is used to describe the depths of the sea, or the depths of a miry pit. It’s also used in the parable of the seeds, for the seed that lands on rocky soil and springs up quickly, then dies. There is no depth to the soil, it looks good, but there’s nothing to it. This describes so much of the love available to us in this world it may look good but it has no depth. God’s love is just the opposite, it is real and has the kind of depth that we can sink our lives into and grow. The depth of God’s love not only refers to the fact that it’s solid and real, but also that it reaches to the deepest parts of our being. Some of us are more open than others, some reveal themselves more freely than others, yet the truth is that we are all sinners. The true depth of God’s love is found in its ability to reaching the most desperate of sinners of whom Paul says he was the chief.  It doesn’t seem far-fetched that you would die for your lover, or that you would die in place of your child. But Romans 5:8 says “God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” Christ didn’t die for us when we were considered good but while we were still sinners. This is a demonstration of the depth of His love, a love that was willing to stoop in order to salvage. Some have hurts that are so deep they have locked them away in closets, shut off from the light of day and the love of even those who are closest to them. Because they are afraid that if someone sees the deep down ugly parts of them they won’t be loved anymore and they just can’t risk that. But God’s love is deeper than our deepest pain, it can penetrate the darkness of our worst fears. God’s love can get down so deep that it can clean out the closets of sin, despair, and self-hatred.

How deep is God’s love? Deep enough that it will never leave us even through the most difficult and trying situations of life.  Romans 8:35-39 asks “Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? 37 No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. 38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. 39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The reality of God’s love is that it is so wide that it embraces everyone; it is so long-lasting, it will never let us go; it is of such a high-quality that it will never let us down; it is solid enough to bank your life on and deep enough to meet your deepest needs. Do you know that God is crazy about you and that He wants you to know how wide and how long and how high and how deep His love is for you? Are you experiencing the love of God today?