DAILY DEVOTIONAL
June 5 — Love, the first fruit
A spoken reading of this is being recorded — it will appear here soon.
June 5 — Love, the First Fruit
"We love him, because he first loved us." — 1 John 4:19 (KJV)
Paul lists love first, and John explains why. Christian love is not the start of the chain; it is the response. Someone loved us before we knew what loving was. The fruit grows because the root was already watered.
This matters in a season when love is often described as a feeling we generate. The phone tells us to be kinder, more empathetic, more present. The articles tell us to love our family better. The advice is fine. The order is wrong. We do not produce love by trying harder. We love because we have been loved, and the Spirit puts the loving response inside us as we stay close to the One who loved us first.
The practical form of this is small. A father puts his phone face-down before his daughter sits at the table. He does it because he wants to be present, but also because he was loved by a Father who is present. The action has a source. He is not generating love out of his own resolve; he is letting it flow through.
When that order gets reversed — when we try to manufacture love from the inside out — we burn out fast. The notifications keep coming. The patience keeps thinning. The kindness keeps running low. We need to be loved before we can love.
Today, before you try to be more loving, sit for one minute and remember: you are loved. Christ died for you while you were still far off. That is the fact. Love grows from there.
"Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not." — 1 John 3:1 (KJV)
May the Lord bless you and keep you.