You’re reading JESUS: LESSONS IN LOVE, by Eric Elder, featuring thirty inspiring devotionals based on the greatest “lover” of all time, Jesus Christ. Also available in paperback and eBook formats in our bookstore for a donation of any size!

Scripture Reading: Matthew 3 

I have a question for you.  There’s a point in Jesus’ life where God’s love for His Son, Jesus, is so full, that God speaks these words from heaven so that all those around Jesus can hear:

“This is my Son, whom I love, with Him I am well-pleased.” 

The question is this:  At what point in Jesus’ life does God speak these words?  Was it:

A)  After Jesus had just healed someone who was sick? 

B)  After He walked on water? 

C)  After He had raised someone from the dead? 

D)  After He had preached a life-changing message to a massive crowd? 

E)  None of the above. 

If you answered, “E) None of the above,” you’re right.  The point at which God vocalized His tremendous love for His Son wasn’t after Jesus did any of these things.  It takes place before every one of them.  In fact, it takes place before Jesus did even one recorded miracle, or one recorded act of service to anyone else.  It takes place in Matthew chapter 3, when Jesus came to John to be baptized by Him:

“As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water.  At that  moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him.  And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’” (Matthew 3:16-17). 

God loved Jesus right from the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, not just at the end of it.  What does this say about God’s love for us and for others?  Is God’s love the same for us, or was it different for Jesus, because Jesus was, after all, sinless!

As a father myself, I believe God’s love for us begins way before we would even think it would.  My oldest daughter turned sixteen this weekend.  I remember the sense of love I began to feel for her in those first moments after her birth, and then in those first days, those first weeks, and those first months as a baby.  Right from the start I felt an overwhelming love for her, even though she hadn’t yet done one spectacular thing for me or for anyone else.  In fact, about all she did was eat, sleep, cry, and make messes that we had to clean up.  But my love for her was unmeasurable.

I’m sure my love for my daughter is just a fraction of the kind of love God has for each one of us.  Even before we could ever possibly do one miracle in His name, or one act of kindness, or one good deed for someone else, God loves us.

Even when all we can do is eat, sleep, cry, and make messes that He has to clean up, God loves us.   Even though we’re not anywhere close to being sinless, like Jesus was, God loves us.  The Bible says:

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). 

God loves us, even though we sin.  That’s why He sent Jesus to die in our place.  God isn’t waiting for you to do something spectacular before He loves you.  He loves you right now, this very minute.

If we want to love others the way that God loves them, then we need to set our hearts on loving them before they ever do even one good deed.  We need to commit to loving them even when all they might do is eat, sleep, cry, and make messes that we have to clean up.  We need to keep loving them, even when they sin.  For when we can have a love like that in our hearts for others, then we’ll be able to truly begin to love them as God loves them.

Prayer: Father, help me to have a heart like Yours, a heart that loves others for no other reason than the fact that You created them and that You love them, even when they mess up.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.