the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 1 of 5
Deuteronomy 7:7-26
You and I, we tend to love those people who love us, those who are attractive to us and likable (Luke 6:32). The love of God is of a completely different nature. It was in action towards Israel even in Egypt, the feeble and miserable nation that was not seeking after Him, "the fewest of all people" (vv. 7, 8). It was the same toward us while we were without strength, ungodly, yet sinners, enemies (Romans 5:6; Romans 5:8; Romans 5:10). Man loves when he finds reasons in others for such a feeling; it is a love of merit. In contrast, all God’s reasons for loving us were within His own heart, with the result that this love extends to all His creatures without any distinction. Henceforward the love which God expects from man is only a just response to His love; it has a motive: "We love him because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19). It also has a consequence for us: obedience (v. 9). To this the heart of God responds afresh, but with a particular feeling, that of v. 13 which, in the New Testament, corresponds to the promise of the Lord Jesus: "If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him . . ." (John 14:23; 1 John 5:3). Have we had such an experience?
