“God shows us his love through this,
that Christ died for us,
while we were yet sinners”
What are we emphasising?
For God's sake. Verse 5 says that God's love has been shed in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. God's love in the Greek first is expressed by the word “agape”, in contrast to the human love expressed by the word “philia”. There is simply a difference between these 2 kinds of love. God’s love is simply a gift and is inseparable from the Holy Spirit! We can say that if we have full received the Holy Spirit, then this love is within us and we are ready to be "martyres" (witnesses, martyrs). We must not quench the fire of the love of the Holy Spirit with indifference or disbelief! The love of God – agape – on our part involves readiness to lose everything for Christ.
“Shema, Israel, love God! Jesus, now I'm losing Your the soul for you and the Gospel!’ We repeat this 7 times a day as an act of pure love! Jesus gave his life for me – this is agape! The Father gave His boy Jesus (cf. Jn 3:16) – this is agape! The Holy Spirit pours this “agape” into our hearts. In order to accept it, we must accept Jesus and put him first in our lives – above all relationships with things, with people and with ourselves! Love (agape) is simply a regular process, a road. This is the content of the first commandment: to love God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength! This is the first and most crucial Commandment! It is inextricably related to the love of one’s neighbor. There's no 1 without another!
Practical application:
Realize in person: God shows you his love by Jesus Christ died for you while you were inactive in sin! At our prayer stops, we accept God’s love: we give our sins to Jesus and we accept his forgiveness with faith. We respond with love erstwhile we consciously confess: “Jesus, my God, I love you with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my strength! Now I lose my soul to you and the Gospel.” Be peculiarly aware of the word “love” and personally experience the word “lost” in relation to the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
