“God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” 1 John 4:16
People believe many different things about God, but there’s one thing most agree on: God is love. The challenge lies in understanding what that truly means. Having a wrong view of what His love is and how it works is detrimental to our spiritual growth. So, even if you’ve been a believer for a long time, it’s important to pause and think about what it actually means that God is love.
A common misconception today equates love with unconditional acceptance and affirmation, regardless of truth. It’s the idea that God loves us just as we are. So, when we struggle with a particular sin, this mindset thinks, “God understands that I’m only human. After all, He loves sinners, right?” While it’s true that God loves sinners, He doesn’t leave us in our sin but transforms us from the inside out. Let that sink in: His love didn’t make you acceptable—it made you new.
Jesus paid the ultimate price so we wouldn’t have to stay in our sin (Romans 5:6). He didn’t go to the Cross to affirm us in our sin but to free us from it. He poured out His love on the Cross so we could be conformed to His image, not so we could stay like us. “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
The sin nature may still linger in us, but it should no longer rule over us. Through His power, we can die to ourselves and live for Him. That’s why Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 16:24-25).
God’s love meets you where you are, but it never leaves you there. Where are you holding back? Have you surrendered some area to your old nature, as if you can’t conquer it? Jesus can! Take it to Him in prayer right now. Your salvation is so much more than a decision about your eternal destiny; it’s about how you live each and every day. Don’t stop at knowing about His love; abide in it. Rest in it. Let it change you.
