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August 11, 2025

Contemplating the Love of God

by Jason Neill

Scripture reading: John 3; 15; Romans 5; Ephesians 2; 1 John 4

For the last few weeks, we’ve addressed different books of the Bible. To tell you the truth, I sat down at my laptop, fingers hovering over the keyboard, and I wasn’t sure what to write. What topic should I address this week? What would be most beneficial to those that read the blog? Should I address the character of God? Another facet of Bible study methods? A blog post on discipleship, and what does it entail? As I ran through the list, I crossed a line through each topic. I finally concluded that I would share with you all what I’ve been thinking about lately.

What’s occupied my thoughts is the love of God, and the ultimate demonstration of that love by Christ giving his life for us on the cross. A few verses come to mind.

  • “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16, NLT).
  • “There Is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13, NLT).
  • “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:8, NLT).
  • “But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!” (Ephesians 2:4-5, NLT).
  • “God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love – not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins” (1 John 4:9-10, NLT).

In contemplating these verses, a sense of gratitude, praise, wonder, and humility flooded my mind. Because of what he did for me; I want to live for him. When I stand before Christ, face to face, I want my life to have been a “thank you” letter to him. What I mean by that is, out of sheer gratitude, not fear or insecurity, I want to show him how grateful I am for what he’s done for me.

In turn, that gratitude drives me to do all I can for him by sharing the good news of the gospel: that anyone who believes in Jesus for eternal life, which can never be lost, possesses that life the moment they believe (see John 3:16; 5:24; 6:47; 11:25-26). This has been on my mind lately, and perhaps you can take some time to think about it too.