Reading: 1 John 1 and 3:1-3.
God created us in His image. It is God’s will that we live with Him. For that reason, God has given us the gift of communication, so that in our words we can praise and glorify God. He has given us the ability to love, so that we can heartily love Him. He has given us the ability to rightly know Him and to live with Him in eternal blessedness (HC Lord’s Day 3).
It is God’s will that throughout our life we will get to know Him more and more. We get to know Him by walking with Him (Micah 6:8), and communicating with Him, and the more we know Him, the more we will also grow and be established in our love for Him. God created us so that He could enjoy us and could receive love from us. Love is the highest form of communion within a relationship. Love makes a relationship more than just a business relationship, in which we need each other for financial gain.
God wants to have the highest form of relationship with us and is not satisfied with anything less than true love. He gives us true love, and He expects from us true love, with all our heart and soul and mind. We as mankind in Christ, God’s people, are being called the wife of God, or the bride of Christ. We are His, we live through Him and we live for Him (For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to Whom be glory forever.’ (Romans 11:36).
Therefore, we know God as the God Who is love. God is not an impersonal being, a kind of mysterious higher power, a force which works in mysterious ways in this creation, but He is the personal God, Who loves us. We are His, we are His own offspring (Acts 17:28), we are of Him, through Him and to Him. God and this creation are not standing over against each other. God and mankind are not like two separate parties who need each other, as so many heathen peoples believed and still believe (even Islam preaches this in a certain way, where it believes that human beings are first of all servants of Allah and not children). But this creation came forth from God and exists through God and has its purpose in Him. We live in God, God is all around us. God created us to live with Him in an intimate relationship of love and unity. ‘and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ’ (1 John 1:3) God does not want us to fight Him or to manipulate Him for our own gain. God loves us and it is His will that we love Him. That makes our life good.
Key Text: 1 John 3: 1: ‘Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God.’
Meditation: God loved us so much that He made us His children. Jesus Christ loved us so much that He was willing to give His life, to make us His children. How great the Father’s love for us! We are His image. We will reflect His love! What is the best way for us to show our love to God?