When Perfect Love Came Down

      Our culture is a bit confused about love. We've reduced love to a feeling, a preference, or an emotional response. But during this Advent season, 1 John 4 invites us to discover something far deeper – the very source of love itself. Love isn't just something God does. Love is who God is. When John writes that "God is love," he's making a statement as profound as it is simple. Every genuine expression of love flows from God's nature. This truth transforms how we understand both love and Christmas.
      Before creation, before time, before anything else existed, there was God – existing in perfect love within the Trinity. The Father, Son, and Spirit have always existed in perfect, self-giving love. This means love isn't a human invention or a product of evolution. Love is as eternal as God Himself. This helps us understand Christmas at a deeper level. When God chose to send His Son, He wasn't suddenly deciding to love us. He was expressing His eternal nature. The incarnation reveals what has always been true: God's love compels Him to give Himself for others. The baby in the manger wasn't Plan B. Jesus' coming was the natural expression of who God has always been.
      John emphasizes this point: "This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him." Notice the cause and effect. God's love didn't result from our worthiness. We didn't earn it or deserve it. God loved because God is love. The manger leads to the cross because love always moves toward sacrifice.
      Our modern world struggles with this concept. We've embraced a consumer version of love that's all about what makes us feel good. We love pizza, we love our phones, we love weekend getaways. But biblical love – the kind displayed at Christmas – is different. It's sacrificial, intentional, and oriented toward others' good.
      This becomes clearer when we look at the specific word John uses for love. In Greek, it's "agape" – a love characterized by deliberate choice and sacrificial action. This isn't about warm feelings or romantic attraction. This is about a commitment that persists regardless of the cost. That's why John can say, "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." If God's love moved Him to sacrifice His Son, how should His love in us move us to sacrifice for others? John doesn't leave this question theoretical. He immediately connects it to our relationships: "Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." Here's where many Christians miss the point. We often treat this as a burdensome command – one more thing we have to do to please God. But John presents it as a natural outcome. When God's love dwells in us, it naturally flows through us. Just as a spring naturally produces water, those born of God naturally produce love.
      This explains why John makes such a strong connection between loving God and loving others. He states bluntly that anyone claiming to love God while hating their brother is a liar. Why? Because God's love, when genuine, always reproduces itself in our relationships with others. You can't contain it any more than you can contain light in a dark room.
      During Advent, we're reminded that God's love became visible. The invisible God took on flesh and dwelt among us. Now, John tells us that this same dynamic continues through us: "No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us." This is perhaps the most beautiful aspect of God's love – it's reproductive. When we receive God's love, we become carriers of that love to others. The Church isn't just a group of people who believe certain things about God. We're meant to be living demonstrations of God's love in action. Instead of getting caught up in the consumerist frenzy, we're invited to become channels of God's love. Every act of kindness, every sacrifice for others, every choice to forgive – these make the invisible God visible to our world.
      The early Church understood this. They didn't just talk about God's love; they demonstrated it. They cared for the sick during plagues when others fled. They rescued abandoned infants. They shared their resources freely. They crossed social boundaries to create new communities of love. They showed that God's love changes everything. This Advent season calls us to the same mission. We're invited to move beyond sentimentality to substance, beyond warm feelings to sacrificial action. The love that drove God to send His Son now drives us to give ourselves for others. In practical terms, this might mean reconciling with that family member you've been avoiding. It might mean sacrificing your comfort to serve someone in need. It might mean opening your home to the lonely, giving generously to those in crisis, or standing with the marginalized. Whatever form it takes, true love always moves toward sacrifice.
      Remember, we don't generate this love ourselves. We're simply channels for the love that flows from God. That's why John emphasizes that "we love because he first loved us." Our love for others isn't mustered up by human effort. It's the natural overflow of having received God's love in Christ. As we approach Christmas, let's remember that the baby in the manger reveals the heart of the universe. Behind all creation, sustaining every moment, stands not an impersonal force but a personal God whose very nature is love. This love took on flesh in Jesus. Now it takes on flesh in us, His Church. The world desperately needs this message. In an age of increasing isolation, political division, and social fragmentation, God's love offers hope. When we love as God loves – sacrificially, unconditionally, actively – we make His presence tangible in our broken world. This Christmas, may we not only celebrate God's love but become channels of it. May our lives demonstrate that love is more than a feeling, more than an idea, more than a choice. May we show our world that love is the very nature of God, revealed in Christ and reproduced in His people.