God's love

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers" 1 John 3:16

I decided to reflect upon this verse because in a week's time, my band will be leading worship for a sermon based on this verse.

Simple enough, this verse is obviously about Love. The thing that popped into my mind is the question many people ponder in our society today which is "what is love". Does it not clearly state the answer in this verse?

Yes, when you think of Jesus Christ laying down his life, you think of his death and resurrection. However, I do not believe God is asking all of us to die for our brothers. The bible specifically uses the words "laid down" instead of the word "gave". When you lay down or put something down, you usually put the item down so you can do something else first. Meaning, that Jesus gave us priority over his own life because he loves us. This verse is asking us to put our brothers (others) over our own life. Meaning, we should be willing to go out of our way to show compassion and love to others no matter who and why. We should always approach them with love

"We love because he first loved us" 1 John 4:19. I think I am finally beginning to understand the reason or the significance behind this verse. I have noticed that many people now a days have become more selfish which results in less compassion for one another. However, they still love their friends and family because they love them back. We learn things because we see others do it. Thus, the only reason we are able to love is because he showed us how to love first. Ultimately proving that he is the one and only God that is all loving and loves us more than anyone else can imagine.