God Is Love

“Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” — 1 John 4:10 (KJV)

Moody begins his book with the most important truth of all:

“If I could only make men understand the real meaning of the words of the apostle John—“God is love,” I would take that single text, and would go up and down the world proclaiming this glorious truth.”

Moody says the trouble is that people think God hates them, and so they keep running away from him.

He tells a story. His church in Chicago put the words “God is Love” over the pulpit in gas lights. One night a man walking past glanced through the door and saw them. He thought, “God is Love! No! He does not love me; for I am a poor miserable sinner.” He tried to forget the words, but they seemed to stand in front of him in letters of fire. He turned round, went in, and stayed behind afterwards, crying. When Moody showed him from the Bible how God had loved him all along, he went away rejoicing.

Where does the idea that God doesn’t love us come from? Moody says it often comes from being taught that God only loves us when we are good. But that isn’t what the Bible says. Good parents don’t stop loving their children when they misbehave. Moody says: “It is the sin that He hates,” not the person.

To see how big God’s love is, Moody says, look at the cross. Jesus laid down his life not only for his friends but for his enemies, for the people who mocked him and killed him. On the cross he prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

And God’s love doesn’t change. People who loved you once may have grown cold. But Jesus, the night before he died, “having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end”. He loved Peter, knowing Peter would deny him. He even loved Judas.

Moody also answers a question many people ask: if God loves me, why doesn’t he just make me good? Because, he says, “God wants sons and daughters in heaven; He does not want machines or slaves.” He draws us by love.

Moody knew that feeling unloved can be crushing. If you feel that nobody loves you, or if you have thoughts of hurting yourself or not wanting to live, please tell a trusted adult today, or contact a crisis line. God loves you, and the people around you want to help.

One thing to do this week: write “God is love” somewhere you will see it every day this week: your mirror, your lock screen, your planner. Each time you see it, say to God, “Thank you that you love me, even today.”