Something I’ve been studying lately is relationships, specifically, the relationships we see in the Bible, and how those relationships can inform our relationship with Christ today. Most recently, I’ve been looking at the relationship between God and Israel. I think the book of Jeremiah gives us a good look at the love God showed the Israelites. Israel, God’s chosen people. Israel went back and forth on how they viewed God and whether or not they followed His commandments.
In Jeremiah 31, we see that they’re in one of these times they are away from God, but what does God
say to Israel? “The Lord appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.” (31:3, ESV).
Despite them having turned away from God and being unfaithful to God, He appears to His people at a distance, He still has this everlasting, unwavering love for His people. But He’s making a statement. God tells them that His love for them is unwavering, but to feel it, they would have to go to Him. His love is there and it’s waiting for them, and it’s never going anywhere. But, they have to take the steps to feel it. It’s one thing to love someone when they’re wrong and not do anything about it, and it’s something even better to love someone and tell them they need to be better.
God shares this same never-ending love with us. It is a love we cannot truly understand until we are with Him in heaven. Part of this is because as we read in 1 John 4:7-21, God is love, we cannot have love without God. God is the originator of love and because of this, we find with Him the true form of love. Love that moves past mere attraction, or admiration. A love that is more than what the world defines as love. A love that is based on what the Bible teaches what love looks like — God. What we can know is that the love God has for us is far better than any love we feel here.
The moments that we feel the most loved while we’re living are nothing compared to the amount of love that God has for us. The best part about God’s love is that it’s unconditional love; God’s love is not performance based. There is no amount of sin in our lives that disqualifies us from receiving the love of God. Before we knew we had the capability of knowing we can do wrong, God loved us. He always will.
Sam Moore
Dalraida church of Christ is a congregation of Christians that meet in the mid-town area of Montgomery, Alabama. Our goal and purpose is to seek and follow God and His Word in everything that we do in life.