christian counseling today
Vol. 20 no. 2
59
And we ought to lay down our lives for
our brothers and sisters”
(3:16)
.
n
“Dear children, let us not love with
words or speech but with actions and
in truth”
(3:18)
.
n
“Dear friends, let us love one another,
for love comes from God… because
God is love”
(4:7-8)
.
n
“Dear friends, since God so loved us,
we also ought to love one another”
(4:11)
.
n
“… God is love. Whoever lives in love
lives in God, and God in them…We
love because he first loved us”
(4:16, 19)
.
Truthfully, that is the secret—loving
others, even those who seem to be
unlovable, because God enables us to
do so. In fact, they are all our children
because they all belong to God. We do
not love when it is convenient… we
love because of God’s love for us. We
just cannot help loving those even when
they are unable to love us back.
Who Does God Love the Most?
Here is one last story that illustrates how
God loves through others. One Sunday,
a very nice-looking family attended the
church I pastored in Oregon. The next
week, I made a call to their home and
was seated in their den with the husband
and wife and two beautiful children. It
was then that I heard a terrible sound
coming from another room. The mother
excused herself and returned shortly
carrying the most deformed, disabled
child I had ever seen.
She laid the child down on the floor
in front of her and said, “This is Johnny;
he is our third child. We love him more
than I can say. He does not know we
do, and neither can he love us back,
but if you were to ask us which one of
our three children we love the most, we
would have to say Johnny.”
I was taken aback, and I heard myself
say, “How can that be?” The mother
thought for a moment, stroked the little
boy’s hair, and responded, “Because he
needs us to love him the most.” Is that
not the way God loves?
“And he has given
us this command: ‘Anyone who loves God
must also love their brother and sister’”
(1 John 4:21). This means anyone and
everyone who needs to be loved, and
that means
everybody
.
✠
Rev. H.B. London, Jr.,
D.D.,
has served 32 years
in pastoral ministry—20 as
Pastor to Pastors with Focus
on the Family. H.B. and
his wife, Beverley, are now
“retired” and live in LaQuinta, California, where
he will continue his ministry to the clergy through
H.B. London Ministries (hblondon.org). Focus
on the Family has conferred on H.B. the title of
Pastor to Pastors Emeritus.
