Fourth Sunday of Advent: Love

 How do we demonstrate Christ's Love during Advent?

"For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life." - John 3:16, CSB

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." - John 13:34-35, ESV

"We love because he first loved us." 1 John 4:19, ESV

I love it in church, when during the reading of the Old Testament and New Testament readings, we'll also read a Psalm, where the reader will read off a sentence, and the congregation will speak the next sentence. It gives me a sense of engagement with the text, rather than just having the Psalm read to us. As I think of this, the Fourth Sunday of Advent when we light the Candle of Love, I see God's love in three ways: the immensity of God's love; the demonstration of God's love; and the response to God's love.

First, John 3:16 tells us how great was and is God's love for us. I've known that verse for nearly all my life, but until I read the CSB translation did I truly understand it. For some reason, the archaic "For God so loved the world..." just doesn't have the same impact to me as "God loved the world in this way." This translation tells me that God's love for us was to such an immense depth that He gave us His only Son, to come into the world, to provide us with the Gift of Grace the reconnects us to Himself. 

Later in John's Gospel, after Jesus and the Apostles had left the Upper Room for the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus gives them a new commandment, to love one another, just as He had loved them. But note that after He gives them this commandment, He qualifies it by saying this love that they are to demonstrate will be the proof of how others will perceive them: love out in the open, love in action and word, love without conditions, will show that those who live in this love are Jesus' disciples. 

Finally, in John's 1st letter, this response to God's love to us is that we not only love God in return, but we extend that love to others, because God first loved us. This response is not just a one-way back to God response: it is a response to His love by reflecting that love onto others, be it family, friends, coworkers, or total strangers. It is a love that daily motivates us to look for ways of serving others, and putting other's needs before our own. It is a love demonstrated by being God's love in a world filled with brokenness.

May the Love of God surround you and glow from you this Advent and Christmas seasons.  

Follow John's Advent journey here on his blog, johnscoffeehouse.blogspot.com, or on Facebook, johnscoffeehouse.