Love is something that, at our core, we all crave.

Unfortunately, it is also something that we often poorly exhibit. What the vast majority of people know as love is really a cheap counterfeit of what love is supposed to be. We have reduced love to a feeling, telling ourselves it is about whether or not we feel that warm, gushy feeling. Yet, even at this simplistic level, we often fail at love.

Thankfully, God is not like us humans when He promises to love us.

One of humanity’s best images of love is that of a parent for their child. Our ideal view of parenting is one of unconditional love, so God uses this image to explain to us how much He loves us.

He has promised to love us. As a result, this verse promises that we can be called God’s children!

John goes on to say that the world won’t understand this because it doesn’t know God. We cannot understand love or exhibit true love if we do not know God, who is Love.

There will be times that the love of other people — even our earthly parents — fails us, but we can rest in the promise that God calls us His children and He deeply loves us.