This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

1 John 4:10-12

 

Someone asked me a while ago. What does it mean to be godly? What is it to have a godly friend? To have godly love for others?

Yesterday I wept in my counselor’s office, remembering the love I had once felt for others – those whom I had served on God’s behalf. I had not felt love so deeply for a long time. But now I couldn’t hold back the tears.

As I wept I felt God’s love move inside me – his pure love. When all was well such love had always traveled easily from my heart, with a depth I haven’t felt for a while. This was godly love. It’s a sharing with others what I have inside in the way God’s love is meant to be shared.

Receiving godly love from another might for some of us be like being held close – as a child who had for too long been abandoned. It might mean being rescued from a cold world by the warmth and kindness of another. Godly love brings relief from the troubles human beings face. Godly love brings peace and security.

I often think of the prostitute in the Bible who wept so profusely that her tears wet Jesus’ feet as he reclined at dinner. Lovingly she dried them with her long hair. Jesus’ immense love had affected her deeply. She must have needed such love for a long time. Jesus had shown his love to her and now she showed her love to him. God’s love shared.  (Luke 7:37-38)

Have you ever felt the pain of abandonment? I believe this woman might have. Probably quite a few of us have. You, like me, may then have been blessed by God’s love coming to you through the ministry of a godly friend – one who has God living inside.

Don’t let that love go when you receive it. Share the blessings it brings with others who need God’s love as you once did. This is how we best serve God.

What is godly love?

“…if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” (vs 12)

marja