This Is Love: The Love That Started With God - Linda Bailey
Love is one of those words we hear everywhere. It’s in songs, movies, relationship advice, and everyday conversation. But during this Advent season at One Church, we’ve been exploring a deeper question: what is love, really?
This post is based on a sermon from Linda Bailey in our series “This is Love”, centred on 1 John 4:10. It’s one short verse… but it packs a punch.
In this post, we’ll unpack what that verse means, why it matters, and how it reshapes everyday life.
The verse that defines love
Here’s the whole passage for today:
“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:10)
Linda’s main point is beautifully simple: biblical love doesn’t begin with us — it begins with God.
1) God’s love is God-initiated
A lot of the love we experience in life is conditional. We learn early that approval often feels connected to performance:
Do well, and you’re celebrated
Fail, and you feel like you’ve lost something
Work hard, and you earn rewards
So it’s deeply natural for us to assume love works the same way with God: “If I do enough… if I’m good enough… if I prove myself…”
But 1 John 4:10 flips that thinking.
God didn’t wait for you to get your act together.
God didn’t stand back to see if you were worthy.
God didn’t check the quality of what you could offer.
He loved you first.
As Linda put it: before you took a breath, before you took a step, before you even had a chance to respond — God had already initiated love toward you.
“This is love… not that we loved God, but that he loved us.”
2) We keep trying to “bring something” anyway
Linda shared a relatable picture: being invited to dinner and immediately asking, “What can we bring?” Good manners, right?
But she gently pointed out something important: we often bring that same instinct into our relationship with God.
We think we need to contribute something first:
“Let me clean myself up first.”
“Let me get consistent first.”
“Let me fix my doubts first.”
“Let me prove I’m serious.”
But the gospel is not God saying, “Bring something and then I’ll love you.”
It’s God saying, “I love you — come and receive.”
“God has not asked us to bring anything before he has shown his love.”
3) Love is costly: “an atoning sacrifice”
Then we hit the phrase many of us don’t use in everyday conversation: “an atoning sacrifice.”
Linda explained it simply: love isn’t just a warm feeling. In the Bible, love moves toward action — and in this case, it moves toward the cross.
To understand why, we have to be honest about something our culture often tries to minimise:
Sin is real in the world (we see hurt, injustice, evil, selfishness everywhere)
Sin is real in us (judgement, greed, pride, bitterness, selfish choices)
And God isn’t only loving — God is also just. He doesn’t shrug at evil or sweep pain under the carpet. That wouldn’t be loving to victims, or truthful about what’s broken.
In the Old Testament, God’s people were familiar with sacrifices made to atone for sin. But what makes the gospel so shocking is this:
God didn’t demand we pay the cost.
God paid it himself.
And that’s where Linda gave us a line worth sitting with:
“You cannot have the cradle without the cross.”
Christmas is not just the story of a baby. It’s the beginning of the story of a Saviour — God entering our world to rescue us, not just inspire us.
Connecting to Our Lives
What if you stopped trying to earn love?
This sermon lands right in the middle of real life — especially for anyone who feels like they’re constantly striving.
If you’re the kind of person who measures life by progress, output, achievement, and whether you’re “doing enough”, then this message is both confronting and freeing.
Because it says:
God’s love isn’t a prize for the worthy
God’s love isn’t payment for the hardworking
God’s love isn’t a bonus for the religious
God’s love is a gift.
And it’s not a vague gift — it’s personal, specific, and costly.
Linda shared a powerful picture from space travel: when a spacecraft re-enters Earth’s atmosphere, it generates extreme heat, and it needs a protective system that essentially takes the heat so those inside can survive.
Her point was clear:
Jesus took the heat for us.
He bore what we couldn’t bear.
He absorbed what would have destroyed us.
Love changes how we see ourselves (and others)
This kind of love doesn’t just comfort us — it reshapes us.
If God’s love is truly the foundation (not a bonus add-on), then it starts to change:
how you see your failures (not disqualified)
how you see your past (not defined by it)
how you see your future (not alone in it)
how you treat other people (more mercy, more patience, more generosity)
Linda ended with a simple image: we’re not the sun — we’re the moon.
The moon doesn’t generate its own light. It reflects light it receives.
In the same way, we don’t manufacture perfect love out of sheer willpower. But as we receive God’s love, we can begin to reflect it.
“If we can start to glimpse and understand the love that he has for us, then we can be just like the moon and reflect his love back to others.”
That’s an Advent invitation if there ever was one - Receive love… and then let it spill outward.
1 John 4:10 gives us a definition of love that’s stronger than sentiment and sturdier than romance:
Love begins with God.
Love is given before it is returned.
Love is proven at the cross.
Love becomes the foundation for how we live and love others.
If you’ve been trying to earn God’s affection, this verse offers rest. If you’ve been exploring faith, this verse offers a starting point. If you’ve been carrying shame, this verse offers hope.
God’s love isn’t waiting at the finish line. It meets you at the beginning.
One Way to Live it Out This Week
Choose one person you find difficult to love right now.
Once a day this week, pray a simple sentence for them (even if it feels forced at first):
“Lord, help me reflect your love toward them today.”
Then look for one small action — a message, a kindness, a shift in tone, a moment of patience — that reflects God’s love in a practical way.
A Prayer for your Week
Lord God, thank you that love begins with you.
Thank you that you didn’t wait for us to earn your love, but you moved toward us first.
Jesus, thank you for the cross — for taking the weight of our sin and making a way back to the Father.
Holy Spirit, help your love become the foundation of our lives again this week.
And as we receive your love, help us reflect it — with generosity, forgiveness, patience, and grace — especially in the places where it’s hardest.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Reflection Questions
Where do you most feel the pressure to earn love — from God, from others, or from yourself?
What part of 1 John 4:10 feels hardest to believe personally right now? Why?
What might change in your week if you genuinely lived from the truth that God loved you first?
Small Group Discussion Questions
When you hear the word “love”, what’s the first thing that comes to mind — and where do you think that idea came from?
Read 1 John 4:10 aloud. What stands out to you most from this single verse?
Linda said God’s love is God-initiated. What does that challenge in the way you normally think about God?
Why do you think it’s so easy to slip into the mindset of needing to “bring something” to God first?
Linda said, “You cannot have the cradle without the cross.” What does that add to (or change about) how you understand Christmas?
How does God being both loving and just help make sense of the cross? What questions does it raise for you?
The moon reflects the sun. What would it look like for you to “reflect” God’s love in one relationship this week?
Is there anything you need to bring to God in prayer tonight — shame, striving, doubt, or a sense of unworthiness? How can we pray for one another to receive God’s love more deeply?