God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 1 John 4:16b
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:16
…just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love… Ephesians 1:4
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1
When God told Moses, “I Am,” He basically told him that He is all things. Certainly, that includes the fact that God is love. It is interesting that we have to wait until one of the last books in the Bible for us to learn that from the Apostle John!
Clearly, God has been love all along! In the beginning God was already love, and He chose us, out of love, to be holy and blameless before Him. Later on, He created the heavens and the earth. Then, He created man in His own image.
John tells us in his gospel that, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. John 1:1-3
Furthermore, John 1:14 tells us, And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
So, it is clear that Jesus was also there in the beginning, and the creation of all things came through Him.
The Apostle Paul confirms that in his Epistle to the Colossians: He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. Col 1:15-17
For CBMC, our first Core Value is the Preeminence of Christ. He is to be the primary focus of every facet of our lives, and it all starts with love!
In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. I John 4:10-11
We are to love one another because God loves us. He loves us because He is love. We’re to share that!
Love God Love People Make Disciples