Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
1 John 4:8 (NIV)
God is Love
In their “12 reasons you will fall in love with Canada” blog, Tripadvisor says this about Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba: “This gorgeous Canadian National Park has mountains, prairies, lakes, wildlife – basically all of the wilderness one can possibly desire. Whether you stay the night and camp or just go for the day, you’ll want to hike or bike the Manitoba Escarpment in Riding National Park. Riding Mountain is a gorgeous national park, located two and a half hours northwest of Winnipeg.
***
There are certain truths that cannot be denied, even in the world in which we live. The sky is blue. Grass is green. Gravity keeps you from floating off into space. You will die if you don’t breathe, drink and eat. God is love. These are all undeniably true. You can live your life depending on these to be true. Especially the last one – God is love. In his account of Jesus’ life, the apostle John refers to himself as the disciple that Jesus loved. Jesus loved each of His disciples, but John seemed to consistently understand Jesus’ love for him – something the others took some time to comprehend. So, it shouldn’t surprise us that in his first epistle, John writes this in 1 John 4:8: “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” John understood that those who follow Jesus are to walk as He walked and live as He lived. So, if God is love, and He is, then the mark of someone who genuinely knows God through faith in Jesus Christ has a life marked by love, just as God is love. Our nature ought to be love, just like God’s nature is love.
These have been words from the heart.
Bob Beasley