What Love is This?

"See  how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are.  For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him." 

1 John 3:1

There is a footnote in my Bible that says the first part of this verse means literally: 'See what kind of love the Father has bestowed...'  Indeed, what kind of love is it that causes Almighty God to desire that sinful men be given a way of access to Himself?  What kind of love causes the perfect, sinless Son of God to take on flesh and pay the price for sin He did not commit?  Before God created the world He knew that man would sin against Him and He knew what it would cost to save mankind; yet He still chose to create the world and give mankind a free will.  The Lord Jesus knew the pain and the agony of the price He paid at Calvary.  He knew that taking on the sins of the world meant being forsaken by God.  Yet He came to pay that price just the same.  What kind of love is this?  I cannot wrap my mind around the depths of God's love.

What does it mean that 'God is love'?  God's love is not merely an action or emotion, it is part of who He is!  This 'love' certainly cannot be what society defines.  I may 'love' a certain book, or the color blue, but that 'love' can never be compared with the Love of God.  How could it even come close!  Can a sinful human being, even one who has been redeemed, ever love like the Lord?  I can't imagine that I will ever love so selflessly, so sacrificially, as my Lord and Savior.  The next two verses in 1 John 3 are so encouraging: "Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be.  We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is.  And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure."  When we see Him, we shall be like Him!  What a wonderful promise in which to hope!  It is because of this hope that we seek to become more like Him and less like the flesh (purify).  How awful it is that so many people are living and dying without this hope.  The hope of eternal life, of being with (and like) Christ.  It may seem foolish to many people to put your hope in something you cannot see.  I love what Romans 8:24-25 says about our hope: "For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one hope for what he sees?  But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it."