LOVE AND FAITHFULNESS

Proverbs 3:3-4

Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.

The Apostle John wrote, “We love because he first loved us.” The Apostle Paul wrote, “God demonstrated his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” In so loving the world that he gave his one and only Son, God was keeping the promise that he had made to Adam and Eve after they sinned. God had promised that he would send the Seed of the woman to crush the Serpent’s head. God was faithful to that promise.

In response to God’s love and faithfulness, we will love him; we will be faithful to him. We will also show love in our relationships with and our attitudes toward the people in our lives and the people in this world. We will be faithful to them by being open and honest with them, by keeping our word and by proving ourselves to be someone who is trustworthy. It would be difficult for someone who regularly displays such characteristics not to win favor and a good name in the sight of both God and man. But we are reminded – we love because he first loved us; we don’t love to earn God’s favor; we don’t love to win a good name. Those are simply the natural results of love and faithfulness.

PRAYER: Lord, as you loved me in Christ, let me love you in Christ. As you were faithful to your Word, may I be faithful to your Word. Amen.