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Grace Communion London

fomerly known as the World Wide Church of God

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Water for the Thirsty

Weekly Devotional
Alpine Scene ‘As the deer pants for streams of water so my soul pants for you, O God’. (Psalm 42:1)
‘…Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink”…’ (John 7:37)

Can’t Buy Me Love

By

‘God is love’ (1 John 4:8 NIV)

The Beatles’ song ‘Can’t buy me love’ included the lines:

I’ll buy you a diamond ring my friend
if it makes you feel alright
I’ll get you anything my friend
if it makes you feel alright
‘Cause I don’t care too much for money,
money can’t buy me love.

And how true that is, money can’t buy us love. It can buy us many things but not what is really important. After all, money will buy:

  • A bed, but not sleep;
  • Books, but not intelligence;
  • Food, but not appetite;
  • A house, but not a home;
  • Medicine, but not health;
  • Pleasure, but not joy;
  • Makeup, but not beauty;
  • Companions, but not real friends;
  • A diamond ring but not love.

God’s love for us is not something we can buy with our performance; He loves us unconditionally because love is what God is in his essential being. Love is not just another attribute of God; He is love (1 John 4:16), hence we can know and rely on the love God has for us (V.16).

How do we know it? ‘This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.’ (V.9-10)

Why can we rely on it? Because ‘his love endures forever’ (Psalm 107:1), and it is ‘unfailing’ (V.15, 21).

Knowing and relying on the love God has for us comes with a responsibility: ‘Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.’ (1 John 4:11) We are to love one another not out of duty or compulsion; we can’t buy one another’s love. We love in response to the love God has shown us: ‘We love because he first loved us’ (V 19).

John even goes as far as saying, if we don’t love one another, we cannot claim a relationship with God: ‘Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister’. (V.20-21)

So although we can’t buy one another’s love, we can certainly give it to one another. As Jesus Himself said, ‘This is my command: Love each other’ (John 15:17). Why? Because by loving each other we are being like the God of love.

Prayer

Father, help us to know your love profoundly, to rely on it totally, and to share it abundantly, in Jesus’ name we pray

Amen

Have a loving week,

Pastor Barry