Faith In The Ordinary

Let us take a journey through the words “God is love” – Not as something cute to quote, but as something sturdy enough to live on.  It is pointing to something foundational: if it’s true, it reshapes how you see God, yourself, people, suffering, justice, forgiveness, boundaries, purpose – everything. Scripture doesn’t say God has love the way we have moods. It says, “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16). Love is not something God sometimes chooses. Love is what God eternally is.

Love Before Time

We begin here: love is older than the universe. Before creation had a first morning, there was already love. Jesus lets us overhear eternity when He speaks to the Father: “You loved me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24). That means love didn’t begin when humans showed up. Love existed before time – within God Himself.

This is where the Trinity matters, not as theological decoration, but as clarity. If God is love, then love must be eternal in God – not dependent on creation. The Father loves the Son, the Son lives in perfect communion with the Father, and the Spirit is not a force but God’s own living presence – God with God, God in God, forever. When Jesus says, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30), He isn’t giving us a math problem. He is revealing a oneness so full it is love.

Creation: Love Makes Room

Genesis opens with God who speaking life into being (Genesis 1). He does not create because He lacks. He creates because love gives. Then He makes humanity in His image (Genesis 1:26–27), which means we are not merely designed for productivity – we are designed for relationship. We are made to know God, to be known, to live in trust and communion.

Even in Eden, God’s boundaries are an expression of love. His command wasn’t about control or pettiness – it was protection. God basically says: “Everything here is for your enjoyment—eat freely… except this one thing.” (Genesis 2:16–17). That “except” isn’t God withholding good; it’s God warning them where death enters. It’s like a parent saying, “Run and play anywhere in the yard, but don’t go into the road.” The limit isn’t punishment. The limit is love.

Because love isn’t “anything goes.” Love doesn’t call danger “freedom.” Love names what destroys and places a boundary around it. In other words, God’s boundary in Eden was a guardrail, not a cage. A guardrail doesn’t stop you from living; it keeps you from falling off the cliff. So from the beginning, we learn this: God’s love is generous, but it is not careless. It offers abundance, and it also gives guidance – because love always protects what it cherishes.

Then we do what we still do today: we try to get “life” on our own terms. In Genesis 3, the temptation isn’t just about eating fruit, it’s about independence. It’s the belief that we can define good and evil for ourselves, that we can be “like God” without actually living with God (Genesis 3). It’s autonomy over trust: I will decide. I will lead. I will take control.

And what does God do first? He doesn’t come swinging. He comes seeking. He walks into the garden and calls out, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9). He’s not seeking because He’s confused about Adam’s location, but because love doesn’t relate to us as a case file. Love relates to us as people. That question is an invitation: Come out of hiding. Tell the truth. Return to relationship. It’s the first proof that sin may drive us into secrecy, but God’s love still moves toward us.

And even when consequences enter the story, mercy shows up immediately. God doesn’t leave them naked in their shame. Instead, He covers what their fear exposed (Genesis 3:21). And God doesn’t let the serpent have the final word. He speaks a promise of eventual defeat; a hope planted right inside the disaster (Genesis 3:15). In other words, judgment is real, but it is not the end. The rescue begins at the very moment the fall happens.

The Old Testament: Love as Covenant and Pursuit

As the story moves forward, love takes on a covenant shape – loyal, committed, steady.

God calls Abraham and promises blessing that will spill into the world (Genesis 12:1–3). He hears the cries of enslaved Israel: “I have surely seen… I have heard… I know their sufferings”—and He acts to deliver (Exodus 3:7–8; Exodus 14). And when He reveals His character, He doesn’t lead with intimidation. He leads with His heart: “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love…” (Exodus 34:6–7). This “steadfast love” is not fragile affection. It is covenant loyalty.

God didn’t give Israel the Law so they could work their way into His love. He gave them the Law because they were already loved, already rescued, already chosen and they needed a way to live as a free people without sliding back into slavery, chaos, and self-destruction. God tells them, essentially: I carried you out; now learn how to walk free (Deuteronomy 6). And when they drift, God doesn’t go silent. He sends prophets, not because He enjoys rebuking, but because love refuses to let people destroy themselves while still calling it peace (Isaiah 1; Amos 5).

Sometimes God’s love sounds like grief. Hosea captures it with breathtaking tenderness: God’s people wander, and yet God says, “How can I give you up?” (Hosea 11:8). Love aches. Love pursues. Love disciplines. Love keeps the door open.

The New Testament: Love Takes on Flesh

Then love steps into history. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). And suddenly “God is love” has a face, a voice, hands that touch, eyes that see, feet that walk toward the broken.

Jesus doesn’t define love with speeches alone. He defines love with presence. He touches the untouchable (Mark 1:40–42). He eats with the rejected (Luke 5:29–32). He welcomes the weary and burdened (Matthew 11:28–30). He confronts hypocrisy because love refuses to let people hide behind performance (Matthew 23). He weeps with the grieving (John 11:35).

When Jesus says, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.” (John 15:9), He’s doing more than offering comfort. He’s revealing the source and quality of the love He gives.

“As the Father has loved me…” means Jesus is grounding His love for us in something older than creation – an eternal, unbreakable love that existed “before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24). The Father’s love for the Son is not unstable, not moody, not earned, not threatened. It’s constant. It’s covenantal. It’s the steady pulse of God’s own life.

Then Jesus says, “…so have I loved you.” In other words: the love I’m giving you is not a lesser, temporary version. He is drawing us into the same kind of love – love that is secure enough to tell the truth, strong enough to sacrifice, and faithful enough to stay. This is why, just a few verses later, He defines love in the clearest terms: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13). His love isn’t sentimental—it is self-giving.

And then comes the invitation: “Abide in my love.” To abide is to remain, to stay, to make your home there. Jesus is not saying, visit my love occasionally when you feel spiritual. He’s saying, live here. Let His love be the place you return to when you’re ashamed, anxious, striving, or exhausted. Because abiding is how love changes you, not by pressure, but by presence.

Then comes the cross—not as God’s love finally “kicking in,” but as God’s love fully unveiling itself. Scripture says, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8). And again, “In this is love… that he loved us and sent his Son.” (1 John 4:10). Love doesn’t merely overlook sin. Love pays to heal what sin ruined. Love absorbs cost to bring the beloved home.

And resurrection declares that love is not fragile. The cross shows us love’s willingness to suffer for the beloved; the empty tomb shows us love’s power to finish what it started. If Jesus stays in the grave, then love is admirable but ultimately defeated. But “Christ has been raised from the dead” (1 Corinthians 15:20), which means death did not get the final word—love did.

So, resurrection is God’s public announcement: My love is not a soft emotion that collapses under pain. My love is stronger than sin, stronger than shame, and stronger than the grave. As Paul says, death is swallowed up in victory (1 Corinthians 15:54–57). The worst thing that can happen is no longer the end of the story.

And this is why love is not only forgiving; love is recreating. Forgiveness removes guilt, yes, but resurrection brings new life. It doesn’t just cancel the past; it begins a new creation. The same God who spoke light into darkness in Genesis now speaks life into dead places through Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). Resurrection love doesn’t merely say, “I won’t punish you.” It says, “Come, live again. Become new.”

The Spirit and the Church: Becoming Love

Now the story moves into us, not because we become the heroes, but because God makes us His dwelling. “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” (Romans 5:5). Not sprinkled. Poured. And because we are loved, we are changed:

• “We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)
• “The fruit of the Spirit is love…” (Galatians 5:22)
• “If I… have not love, I am nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:1–3)

We don’t become love by trying to manufacture it. We become love by remaining, abiding in Love Himself. Or, as Paul says it, the Christian life is not “I cleaned myself up and got religious,” but “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” (Galatians 2:20)

Revelation: Love Finishes What Love Started

The Bible ends with the destination love intended all along: God dwelling with His people, without interruption. “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.” (Revelation 21:3). “He will wipe away every tear… and death shall be no more.” (Revelation 21:4). And at the centre of the throne is the image that redefines power forever: the victorious One is described as the Lamb (Revelation 5). Meaning: in God’s kingdom, authority is not domination. Authority is self-giving love.

Love wins. Love reigns. Love restores. And the last pages of Scripture don’t end with escape, but with renewal: “Behold, I am making all things new.” (Revelation 21:5)

Love in Ordinary Life

But here’s the part that confronts us gently and honestly: most of us already believe “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16) in theory. The real question is whether we believe it in the kitchen, in traffic, in conflict, in exhaustion, in disappointment, and in the quiet inner dialogue no one else hears. Because ordinary life is where we discover what we really think love is.

First, a necessary clarity: Love is holy, protective, and never partners with harm

Before we talk about love in the everyday moments, we have to correct a mistake many of us have been taught to call “love.” Because when we hear phrases like steadfast love—God’s covenant loyalty—we can misread love as: stay no matter what, accept anything, endure harm silently. But biblical love is not passive acceptance of evil. God’s love is holy, protective, and committed to what is good.

Scripture makes this plain from the beginning. In the Old Testament, God’s love does not enable oppression—it confronts it. He hears the cries of the afflicted and moves toward deliverance (Exodus 3:7–8). He commands His people to “seek justice, correct oppression” (Isaiah 1:17), and He thunders through the prophets, “Let justice roll down like waters” (Amos 5:24). Even when God is described as “abounding in steadfast love” (Exodus 34:6–7), that love is never separated from truth and righteousness (Psalm 85:10). God’s love rescues: it doesn’t excuse what destroys.

Jesus carries that same love into human life. He is gentle with the broken, but He is not gentle with exploitation. He confronts hypocrisy and spiritual abuse (Matthew 23). He exposes what is hidden in darkness (John 3:19–21). And He speaks with fierce protection over the vulnerable, warning against harming them with language so strong it should make us tremble (Matthew 18:6). The love of Christ is tender, but it is not naïve, and it is never a cloak for abuse.

That’s why forgiveness cannot be twisted into a trap. Scripture calls us to forgive (Matthew 6:14–15), but it also says, “Do not repay evil for evil… never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God” (Romans 12:17–19). Releasing vengeance to God is not the same as remaining in harm’s reach. Love can forgive and still create distance. Love can forgive and still insist on consequences. Love can forgive and still seek safety and help. That isn’t a contradiction, because love “does not rejoice at wrongdoing” (1 Corinthians 13:6).

So, as we talk about becoming love through Jesus, we are not talking about becoming a doormat. We are talking about becoming like Christ: compassionate, yes, but also wise and firm. Jesus tells His followers to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16). God’s love never asks you to cooperate with your own destruction. It leads you into life. With that clarity in place, we can talk about love where it actually gets tested: in ordinary moments.

1) Love when you’re interrupted

Love isn’t proven when you have time. Love is proven when you don’t. When Jesus saw need, He didn’t treat people as inconveniences (Mark 6:34). In ordinary life, “becoming love” often looks like pausing your pace long enough to actually see the person in front of you – your child, your student, your colleague, your spouse – without making them feel like they’re in the way. Sometimes love is simply saying, “Talk to me. I’m here.”

2) Love that tells the truth without contempt

Many of us avoid truth to keep peace, or we use truth as a weapon to win. Jesus does neither. He is “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Love doesn’t lie to protect comfort. But love also doesn’t crush. In ordinary life, this can be as small as how you correct someone – tone, timing, and posture. The goal is not dominance; it’s restoration. Truth without love becomes harshness. Love without truth becomes confusion. Jesus holds both.

3) Love when you’re tempted to perform

It is possible to do “good things” and still not live in love. That’s why 1 Corinthians 13 is so piercing—service can be done without love (1 Corinthians 13:1–3). Ordinary-life love looks like asking: Am I doing this to be seen, or because I’m secure? Because when you are rooted in God’s love, you can serve without needing applause. You can give without needing credit. You can bless without needing to be noticed (Matthew 6:1–4).

4) Love when you’re angry

Anger is not always sin. God is “slow to anger” (Exodus 34:6), which implies anger exists, but love governs it. Becoming love doesn’t mean becoming passive. It means your anger becomes purposeful: not to punish, but to protect what is good. In ordinary moments, that might look like refusing to send the text you know will wound, choosing to breathe, pray, and respond as someone who belongs to Christ (James 1:19–20).

5) Love toward yourself in the mirror

This is where the gospel gets very personal. Some of us can imagine God loving everyone else, but when we look in the mirror, we see failure, weakness, old labels, and past versions of ourselves. But Scripture says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1). If God is love, and you are in Christ, then your identity is no longer anchored in who you were. It is anchored in who He is and who you are in Him. Learning to “become love” includes learning to stop agreeing with condemnation. It includes learning to live from belovedness.

6) Love that stays

Ordinary love is often unglamorous endurance. God’s love is described as steadfast (Exodus 34:6). Jesus loves “to the end” (John 13:1). Becoming love looks like staying present, staying faithful, staying kind, staying obedient even when feelings rise and fall. Because love is not fragile. Love is covenant.

Love existed before time, entered time in Christ, and will fill eternity, so live now as a preview of what is coming: “Behold, I am making all things new” (Revelation 21:5). Don’t just say “God is love.” Live like Love has a name—and His name is Jesus.

Watch the video version here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivKsUo1C-F8 — and listen to the companion song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMjEPgkCs1Q.