God's love

1 John 4:21 (NLT)
21 And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their Christian brothers and sisters.

In this chapter of John the Apostle has spoken of God’s love for us. God loved us before we could love Him. God loved us enough to give His Son as a sacrifice for our sin. God has communicated His love for us and because God loves each of us we should respect His desire and love our Christian brothers and sisters as He loves us.

In the 19th century Charles Bradlaugh, a prominent atheist, challenged a Christian man to debate the validity of the claims of Christianity. The Christian was Hugh Price Hughes, an active soul-winner who worked among the poor in the slums of London. Hughes told Bradlaugh he would agree to the debate on one condition. Hughes said, "I propose to you that we each bring some concrete evidences of the validity of our beliefs in the form of men and women who have been redeemed from the lives of sin and shame by the influence of our teaching. I will bring 100 such men and women, and I challenge you to do the same." Hughes then said that if Bradlaugh couldn't bring 100, then he could bring 20. He finally whittled the number down to one. All Bradlaugh had to do was to find one person whose life was improved by atheism, and Hughes—who would bring 100 people improved by Christ—would agree to debate him. Bradlaugh withdrew! [D. James Kennedy and Jerry Newcombe, What If Jesus Had Never Been Born? (Thomas Nelson, 1997)] When we know God’s love we can reach out to others when we see them through God’s eyes. However, when we are focused on self we only see others through our own understanding of love and often our efforts to love fail. Let God’s love for you allow you to see how God loves others and love them as God would.