Love is a Choice

 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. Jn 3:16 NIV

God sent His only Son into this world to rescue us from our self-destruction. God’s original purpose for us all, is that we know him as our creator, who loves us and cares for every aspect of our lives.

Why didn't God just make us perfectly good and leave it at that?

Then none of us would turn bad. None of us would kill or steal. We would never mess up our lives with useless addictions.

In fact, God did make the first man and woman perfect and good.

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Ge 1:27 NIV

God is perfectly kind, loving and good. So the first man and woman were created fully formed with the same character as their loving creator: kind, loving and good.

Even today, we can see imperfect manifestations of God’s goodness in many people.

We see faithful couples, loving mothers, skilful doctors who care for their patients, judges who do their best to be fair. Not all politicians and rulers are corrupt.

So why did people go wrong?

God created men and women with his own nature.

One essential aspect of God’s nature is his freedom to make decisions. God did not have to create anything or anybody. He freely chose to create everything, and everybody, including you and me.

If we are created in the image of God, we must also have this essential attribute of God, the ability to make decisions, to marry or stay single, to love or hate, to obey or disobey.

When God created the first man and woman, he put them in a garden full of fruit trees. They could choose to eat any fruit except one, the fruit of the forbidden tree. They had to make a choice, whether to trust and obey God or to disobey.

True love is always a choice. A newborn baby feels the love of its mother and returns that love, but as boys and girls grow up, they must choose to love their parents, or they can rebel and make bad choices. 

We must also choose to forgive our parents, which can be a serious problem.

God did not make us as perfect computers, infallibly programmed to do what we were programmed to do. God made you and me to be unique individuals who mature by making good choices.

When we love as God wants us to love, it is always a choice.

What will you choose today?

We have all inherited a degree of corruption from our parents, and we have all been exposed to bad influences by the world we live in. 

We don’t live in a perfect relationship with God because the first man and woman ate the forbidden fruit and passed on a corrupted nature to all generations.

But God knows all things. He saw that we would misuse our free will. Free will involves rewards for good choices and bad consequences for bad choices. By distancing ourselves from the only source of love and goodness, we are all doomed to die and continue in the next life without any hope or goodness.

God is the God of justice. He did not want to punish us. He sent His own eternal son into this world to pay the penalty for our sin. If we turn to Jesus, we will be forgiven and given a new life, life in the image of our creator.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.  Jn 3:16 NIV

Loving and trusting are choices. Believing in Jesus is a choice. How will you choose today?