NLT Bible Contest Entry #2

NLT Life Application Study Bible - Updated Edition Hardcover

So, since you are allowed to enter the NLT Bible Contest more than once if you like, I decided to throw another entry into the hat. (Here's my first entry.)

Here's the passage I chose this time:

1 John 4:7-10
Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 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.

And here's what I had to say about it:

When I read the verses from 1 John 4:7-10 in the New Living Translation, it got me thinking about the nature of love, and the nature of God. Love, according to the passage, is sacrificial; God sent us something precious because He loved us. God's love is central to His nature. God and Love cannot be separated: "God IS love." Love flows out of Him to us, and is ours to receive.

The passage also says to me that you can't know God without becoming more like Him. If you don't become more like God - if you don't love - then you really don't know Him. You can't truly know God without becoming a lover like He is.

The passage says to me that love gives without being given to first; God loved us before we loved Him. But love gives with a purpose: God gave His gift to show us His love, to provide eternal life for us, and to take away our sins. It seems almost impossible to live up to that kind of love... but the passage not only says that we can, but that we should! Let's keep loving one another with the love that flows to and through us from God!