By Marcel Rebiai

“In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

If we love God and belong to him through Jesus, forming part of His body, we will radiate God’s nature to those around us. God loved the world so much that He gave what was most valuable to Him, His only Son ( John 3:16). In the letter to the Romans, it is written that He loved us while we were still His enemies. His love and commitment go far beyond all human sympathy and antipathy.

Since the fall of man through disobedience, we have been dying and lost in the darkness, contaminated in our bodies, souls and spirits by disobedience and pride. God calls out through the cross of Jesus: “My thoughts over you are of salvation, to give you a future and a hope” (according to Jeremiah 29:11). “Seek Me and live” (Amos 5:4).

God wants to save, heal and purify us, taking us out of the darkness and leading us into His light, to finally give us a home with Him. Love means being willing to show ourselves as we really are and not how we would wish to be. If we love God and believe in His love, we have to make our motives clear to Him and also to our Christian brothers and sisters. If we don’t, no real fellowship will exist, whether between us and God or with our brothers and sisters. That’s why, “if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another” (1 John 1:7).

This devotional is taken from the book To See God by Marcel Rebiai. If you would like to order your own copy, please email us here, [email protected]

Marcel Rebiai is a board member of Revive Israel, and is inspiration for our community. Marcel was born in Algiers in 1953. He came to Switzerland as a war orphan and received faith in Jesus in his youth, which changed his life and made him a messenger of God’s love in Jesus. Since then, he has been faithfully working for the building of the community of Messiah. Marcel is the founder of the “Community of Reconciliation”, an organization that works for reconciliation between Jews and Arabs based on God’s forgiveness and love in Christ. Marcel teaches in various settings around the world about the love that God revealed to us in Jesus, a love that enables reconciliation. Marcel has been living in Jerusalem for the last 30 years, is married to Regula, and has four children and eleven grandchildren.