Love stands high in the conciousness of all human beings, but is this knowledge, understanding and practice of love very uplifting, or very true? The fact is that in human society erotic love comes first to mind when thinking of love, and the conception of what true love and real love is does not appear to be so very clear. In fact the idea of love in human society has been tarnished greatly.
The opening of this Scripture, which is the source of our thought for April, begins with the words 'This is love' - and it is the commencement of an explanation of what real love is. It tells us that the only place we are shown true love is in the action of God.
What is this action? It is the action of God towards human beings who don't love God. What is that action? It is the gift of himself in the person of his one and only Son, the 2nd person of the God-head. There could not be a more great demonstration of love. It is God giving his most precious gift to people who don't love him, and don't deserve to be loved.
But God's love to us who don't love him is even more amazing. God did not simply send his Son into this world to demonstrate his love in the life and living of our Lord Jesus Christ; but he gave his Son to be an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
God's incredible love, showing what divine love is truly, and what love should be in human society, was that he gave his Son to give himself to death and hell, taking responsibility for the all the evil in human life and behaviour, so that unloving human beings could be saved from being rejected by God as unfit for heaven and the happiness of everlasting life with him, and suffering the eternal hell we all deserve. This giving is without condition except that we realise our evil and put our trust in Jesus Christ to save us from the consequence of our unloving.
What does this show concerning real love? it shows that the example of God's love and the love of Jesus in such sacrificial giving is what true love is, and because of this real love is giving ourselves for others in the same way Jesus gave himself for us.