John 3:16

Devotional Thoughts

By David Wilkerson

The love of God is conveyed to us only through Jesus Christ. According to John, all of God's love dwells in Jesus: "Of His fullness we have all we received" (John 1:16). You may ask, "What's so important about knowing that God's love is conveyed to us through Christ? How does this affect our everyday lives?"

This knowledge is more than just a biblical concept. Knowing that God's love is conveyed to us through Jesus has everything to do with how we keep ourselves in his love. You see, it's not enough for me to know that God will always love me and won't stop loving me through all my struggles. He also wants his love to have a certain effect on me.

So, how exactly does God's love impact our lives? We can't look to man's example. There are licentious Christians who would turn the revelation of God's love into a license to sin. They convince themselves, "God loves me unconditionally. He has to keep loving me in spite of all my drinking, adultery and pleasure-seeking. His grace is greater than my sins." Such people do despite to God's love.

We have to look to Christ as our example. Jesus has already told us the Father loves us in the same way he loved the Son. So, what impact did the Father's love have on Jesus? The fruit of the Father's love was in Jesus presenting his body as a living sacrifice for others.

John writes, "By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us" (1 John 3:16). Here was the fruit of God's love in Jesus. He gave himself as a sacrifice for others. The second half of this verse tells us the purpose of God's love in our own lives. It reads, "And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren" (3:16). God's love leads us also to present our bodies as living sacrifices.