There’s a song from The Sound of Music
that goes something like this:
- There you are standing there loving me whether or not you should
- So somewhere in my youth or childhood I must have done something good
- Nothing comes from nothing; nothing ever could
- So somewhere in my youth or childhood I must have done something good
There’s that law god again whose love is dependent upon my doing something good. But, in truth, we can never do anything good enough to cause God to love us or bad enough to cause Him to not love us.
The apostle John tells us:
1John 4:8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
1John 4:16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
This can sound like (to those of us raised with the concept of the law god) God’s love for us is dependent upon our being loving, which is of course not the case. God is love and cannot NOT love us.
But until we know
and believe
the love that God has for us and become receptive to that love, we cannot ourselves know what it is to love.
1John 4:10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us.
1John 4:19 We love him, because he first loved us.
It would strike terror in us to think that God’s love was dependent upon our being able to love. But John tells us that
1John 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
We can say that we have received God’s love, but the acid test is whether or not it produces in us a love for those around us
1John 4:20-21 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.
This is why John can say
1John 4:7-8 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
If we do not love those around us, it is only because we have not yet known and believed the love God has for us. The greater our receptivity to that love, the easier it is to love others. When we know that we don’t have to do anything good to receive God’s love, those around us likewise don’t have to do anything good to receive ours. We become the vessels through whom God pours out His love to the world. Like Jesus, we can bless those who curse us, do good to those who hate us and pray for those who despitefully use and persecute us Matthew 5:44 (Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do—Luke 23:34).
We don’t have to try to love others. Indeed, all attempts are sure to fail. Loving others is the inevitable result of knowing, believing and receiving the love God has for us.