A Love Letter

A preacher once spoke to his students about “love letters.” He spoke of a soldier aboard a ship in the middle of the sea who received letters from the woman he loved. He asked his students this question, “When the soldier would receive a letter would he read it quickly and discard the letter as soon as soon as he was done?” The students readily agreed the soldier would not. The soldier would keep the letters, read them slowly and carefully, and reread the letters at every opportunity. He then asked the students how they treated God’s Word. It may be easy to ask, “What does this have to do with ‘love letters’?” The answer is everything.

From cover to cover the Bible speaks of God’s love to mankind. This is His “love letter” to His creation. It is within its pages that we read of God’s Love being showed in different ways:

Through His Son: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16). “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God” (Romans 3:24-25).

By Being a Father: Although He was spurned by them, He was a Father to the Israelites. “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.” (Hosea 11:1). He is the Father of Christians. “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.” (1 John 3:1).

By Guiding Us: This book tells mankind everything one needs to know in order to live a right life in the sight of God. “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue” (2 Peter 1:3). That includes His warnings.

By His Willingness to Forgive: “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us- ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9).

How do you treat the Bible? Do you treat it like a love letter or the daily paper? Something you cherish or something to be discarded? God has shown His love for you. Will you show yours for Him?