He Loved Us First

1 John 4:19

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When my wife and I began our premarital counseling, the pastor asked us the question that I thought was really, really strange. He asked, why do you want to get married?

Well, that kind of threw us for a loop. We really didn’t know quite how to answer that question, and so we tried answering with what amounted to be cliché type answers. We complete each other. We’re the best of friends. We want to spend the rest of our lives together. And while you could say that none of those answers are wrong. It wasn’t what he was looking for. We were thinking way too difficult.

And so he asked us again, don’t you just love each other? And we looked at each other and kind of laughed because we knew he was right. We were thinking way, way, way too deep, looking for something more profound than just that. And so we answer, well, yes, of course we love each other. And to this day, that question is still in my mind, and I use it at the beginning of any premarital counseling that I do as I ask couples that very same question why do you want to get married?

Why do we want God a part of our life? Oh, we can give all sorts of answers like he is with us every single day. He helps us all the time. He does so much for us every single day. He guides us so that we live a life that is pleasing to him. And none of those are wrong answers, but none of them are the real reason, the real core reason for why we want God as a part of our life.

The answer is really so simple. Much like the question that pastor asked my wife and I, we want God in our life because we love God. First John chapter four verse 19 says,

We love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19)

God loved us first. He saw that we needed him to save us from our sins. We cannot save ourselves. We cannot rid ourselves of them and wash us clean of those sins. And so seeing that need, he loved us. And in his love he sent His Son to take every single one of those sins away. And they were all nailed to the cross. When we see the cross there, we see God loving us. And so we love God because he first loved us. And because we love God, we want God to be a part of our life. We want him to keep loving us by being with us and helping us every day. We want him to keep loving us by blessing our lives in ways that he chooses to bless us. Guiding us and leading us so that we live lives that are pleasing to him.

Why do we want God in our life?

Sometimes the simplest answer is the very best answer that you could possibly give. We love him because he first loved us.

Amen.