“Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. … We love him, because he first loved us.” (I Jn. 4:10,19)
Current generations have grown to be a society of reactionist. By this I mean that for the most part folks wait for others to act then they will react to whatever action the other person initiates. We have become a tit for tat, a measure for measure society. We have become afraid to initiate good will towards others. We spend our time waiting – “If they don’t do ________ first, then I’m not going to do it either!” Sound familiar? We have created a society of intolerable arrogant reactionist brats. Sadly, this has spilled over into the churches and has inflicted an erosion of the Biblical principle of motiveless Christian love toward others. Many wrongfully assume unprovoked Christian love to be a relic of ancient antiquity. The majority of the population holds to the “reaction to the action” philosophy. Is this the way of God?
I sure am glad that God did not wait around for me to love Him before He loved me! If He had, I would still be lost in my sins and condemned for all eternity. “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.” (Rom. 3:10-11) The Apostle John said, “not that we loved God, but that He loved us,” also, “he first loved us.” If God had waited on us to love Him, we would have no hope whatsoever of entering into His forgiveness of sins and eternal life. We would most certainly perish! Our heavenly Father took the first initiative towards us – that is, out of His grace He acted toward us with divine love without us having to first provoke Him into love.
Perhaps the Father’s children ought to emulate the actions of the Father. Society as a whole expends it time waiting to react to the actions of others. As Christians we ought to imitate God, not waiting about for others to provoke us into loving them. Our actions of love should not depend upon someone else expressing love first. If one wants to be loved then he must be the first to initiate the act of love. Oh how things would change in our society, work places, churches, families, and homes if we would act with an unprovoked first love instead of waiting to react after the scrutinizing of motives.–Dr. M. J. Seymour, Sr.
