Kids Blog-Love
Last week, kids learned about God's true love. There are times kids talk about who they really like at school and what they like about them. There could be many reasons such as "Oh, I really like her because she is pretty, nice, or he is smart, funny, etc." We tend to like people who are nice, kind, good-looking, love to spend time with them and treat them well especially when they treat us well. But what does God say about love? What was God's instruction on how to love and treat others?
Bible Story: God's Love and ours
Bible Verse: "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knowsGod." 1 John 4:7
In Matthew 5, Jesus said that we should not just love our neighbors and hate our enemy, but love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. It may be easy to love people who are good to us, but what about those who treat us unkindly, harshly, or unfairly? Jesus instructed us to love even our enemy, and not only that, he told us to pray for them as well! Jesus said that if we only love those who love us and greet only our people, we are not doing anything different or more than others. As children of our Father in Heaven, we need to love everyone. So how do we love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us? Ephesians 4:32 writes, "Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgivng each other, just as in Christ God forgave you." 1 John 4:10-11 says, "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 loves us, we also ought to love anohter." The Bible tells us that God loved us first and He demonstrated His love by sending His Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. God did not love us because we were good-looking, or because we were good people. God did not choose us because we were perfect and righteous. God loved and chose us when we were sinners. Romans 5 tells us that Christ died for us while we were still ungodly, powerless, and God's enemies. Just as God forgave and loved us, though we were His enemies, we are to forgive, love our enemies and pray for them.