Do you love him?
“Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” 1 Peter 1:8-9
We can technically say we haven’t seen God. It’s one of the things about being a Christian centuries after Jesus came to earth. We believe that he came to earth, that he died, and that he was raised from the dead — for us as well as everyone who came before us and who will come after us.
When Thomas was told by the apostles, “We have seen the Lord,” he said in no uncertain terms that unless he saw Jesus, he wouldn’t believe. Thomas held to his word, claiming Jesus as his Lord and God after seeing him. But Jesus said something that resonates with us today, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). That’s us!
We have not seen God, but the message hasn’t changed. We haven’t seen our Lord, but he has made it possible to have a personal relationship with him, one where we can trust in him daily and find the peace we are so desperately seeking.
And through this, we love him. We know that “love” is a word that gets tossed around a lot in our everyday lives, and yet the true love is one that describes the indescribable. The depth of our love for God, even though we can’t see him, can go far beyond any other love we’ve ever known or given.
But do we? Do we love him?
It can be easy to forget that this book is written through Peter. This is the disciple that tried so hard to live the life that God had prepared for him. If you looked at the last blog (“One look from Jesus”), we remember that Jesus turned and looked directly at Peter after Peter had denied him three times. But that’s not where the story ended for Peter.
Jesus asked Peter three times, “Do you love me?”
It can just as easily be us instead of Peter — Jesus could be asking us the same question, “Do you love me?”
We know it’s possible. We know that Love himself loved us and gave up everything so we could know true love (Ephesians 5). It may be hard at times. Life on earth will always be interrupted by evil trying to win us back over to Satan. But rulers and powers can’t separate us from God’s love. Not even angels or time or space. Nothing in all creation can take us away from the love of God in Jesus (Romans 8:38-39). It’s impossible.
So, the question is, even though you haven’t seen him, do you believe in him — and do you love him?
If you haven’t already checked out The 1 Peter Study, whether for personal use or for teaching other women or teen girls, it is now available to help you study (and share) the beautiful Word of God in the book of 1 Peter!
