Advent Devotional Guide - Week 4: Love, The Angels' Candle, and Christmas!
What is Love?
Love is a complicated word. In English -- we can say we love our family, our spouse, our job or… pizza. Yet in each of these contexts our one word for love takes on a unique meaning. In the original languages of the Bible, there are several words that capture different essences and angles of our one word “love.” One of the most commonly used words in the Old Testament is the word Ahava. Ahava is the word most closely related to the general word love -- essentially meaning a feeling of affection.
The Bible tells us that Love originates in God and emanates from God. Love is an essential element of God’s own character. Therefore, God loves his creation -- in particular humanity -- not because we do anything to earn it, but simply because of who God is. For God, love is feeling he expresses toward us, a genuine affection he has for us -- like the love between spouses, or the love of a parent to a child. However, God’s love is also action-- creating, sustaining, restoring, redeeming.
Made By Love, For Love
As the jewel of God’s creation, we are created out of God’s love. God didn’t need to create us, but did so because he genuinely wanted to. Furthermore, we are created and designed for the purpose of receiving God’s love. Romans chapter 8 tells us that even when we were lost in sin, considered enemies of God, God loves us -- and not just in word, but by sending his son Jesus to die for our sins that we might be restored to him. There is nothing that can stop God’s love for us!
we are created and designed for the purpose of receiving God’s love.
However, scripture tells us that our purpose is fulfilled in not only receiving God’s love, but in reflecting God’s love back to him. We return God’s love back to him by walking with him, honoring him, and humbly abiding by his words. We also reflect love in the way we love the rest of creation, including other humans. One of the best ways to show how much we love God, according to scripture, is to show the same love to others without expecting anything in return. We are especially called to love those who are vulnerable and marginalized-- individuals who wouldn’t be able to repay us even if they wanted to. We’re called not just to love those who treat us well, but in the same way God showed us selfless love when we were lost in our own sin, we are called to love those who we consider to be our enemies.
In the book of John, Jesus demonstrates his love for his disciples by taking on the role of a servant and washing their feet. He then commands them to go and do likewise, saying that the defining quality of a disciple is the unique, boundless love they show to everyone. Later, in 1 John chapter 4, the same Apostle John says that our worship is complete in how we love one another. That, in fact, the way we see God in our lives is in the way we love each other.
God’s ultimate act of love began with the birth of his son, Jesus. Jesus’s birth was both the culmination of and the turning point in all of human history. In Jesus, God left the heavenly realm, giving up his Godliness to become both fully God and fully human. He came to demonstrate perfectly what it means to live out God’s purpose as a human. But he also came to sacrifice his life for all of humanity, that by believing in Him, we would be redeemed from our sins and restored as the sons and daughters of the King of All Kings! This week we not only recognize God’s love -- which has no beginning and no end, but we specifically recognize the entry point of God’s ultimate act of love in celebrating the Birth of Christ!