The primacy of love

Friday 23 July 2021

This is how the love of God is manifested towards us : God sent his only begotten Son into the world so that through him we might have life. 1 John 4.9

And if I distributed all my goods to the poor..., but I don't have love, it is of no use to me. 1 Corinthians 13.3

The primacy of love

“After my conversion to Jesus Christ, I started aiming for performance. I had to be a "super Christian". I fasted for days in a row, spent hours in prayer, looked after the homeless... People were impressed! I was doing good things but not for the right reasons. Plus I expected others to sacrifice as much as I did. And that they didn't do it I criticized them.

It was as if I wanted to repay Jesus, who had cleared the debt of my sins ! But no matter how hard I tried to serve and pray, it was never enough.

One day, I read in the Bible : "And this love consists not in the fact that we loved God, but in the fact that he loved us" (1 John 4:10). Suddenly, I have Understood: all God asks of me is to believe in his love and love him back It was a shock to me.

I started to see my life of faith differently, to taste communion with God, instead of feeling like I always had to prove something. Suddenly, I was able to show more compassion to others, and I stopped criticizing them.

Being generous, reading the Bible, praying to God are all good as long as we do it in a spirit of gratitude to God. But if we think that this is how we can keep God's favor, we are completely wrong. We lose sight of the immensity of his grace."

according to Jud Wilhite

Source (The Good Seed)