Jesus once asked, “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?…And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you?” (Luke 6:32-33). In the context, Jesus was addressing how we are to treat others, especially our enemies. Interestingly, the word “enemies” is used in Romans 5:10 to describe our relationship with God before the death of His Son.
Question (using the line of thinking Jesus introduced in Luke 6): What if God only loved those who first loved Him? What if God only did good to those (and for those) who first loved Him?
We’d be in trouble if that was the way God operated! He would have never sent His Son, if He was waiting on us! The reality is that consistent with His nature (i.e. “God is love,” 1 John 4:8), “God so loved us” (1 John 4:11) that He loved us first. “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19)! Thanks be to God for the “great love with which He loved us” (Eph. 2:4)!