Week 4: Love (2025)

Christ the Cornerstone of Love

Dear friends, let us love one another. 1 John 4:7

Scripture invites us to love because God first loved us. The Apostle John, who often described himself as the one Jesus loved, writes, “Dear friends, let us love one another.” This is not a call to create love on our own or to rely on our strength. Instead, our love is awakened as we pause and reflect on how deeply God has loved us first.

John reminds us what that love looks like. “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.” The message of the Gospel is God’s clear and steady declaration of love through Jesus. This is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice for our sins. When we receive this truth, love becomes something we respond to, not something we have to earn or force.

As draw closer to Christmas day, remember that God gave His son as the greatest gift of love. When the birth of the Savior becomes our Cornerstone of Love, we are grounded in the truth that we are loved and called to love others. We do not love to be accepted, and we do not love on our own strength. This season speaks a simple and powerful message to every heart: “I love you, so I give you my Son.” May we receive that love fully and allow it to shape the way we love those around us.

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. John 3:16

Written in collaboration
by Clint Deason & Betsy Lee Nix