For God Still Loves the World

Everyone knows the verse that says, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son..." 

My question is: Does God STILL love the world?

My answer is: Yes. God still loves the whole world.  If He loved us then, "while we were yet sinners", then He loves people now, even those we would say are yet sinners.

I love God's grace, and I like to talk about the beautiful changes that I see happening in me because of His grace.  It is sometimes really amazing, and often beyond anything that I once imagined.

One of the things that I notice is that over time, I'm able to love more people than before.  I don't love perfectly by any means, and my love walk is such a baby compared to my Father, but I'm growing in a way that can be measured - kind of like pencil marks on the wall when one measures the physical growth of a child.  Here are some marks on my spiritual wall:

I grew up racially ignorant, with racist thoughts in many ways.  God loves the world, and over time,  His thoughts have become my thoughts.  My mind has been changed.  I feel empathy and compassion where I once had none and my heart feels so much better knowing that I truly love my fellow human.

I could not accept the idea of anyone who was LGBTQ.  Even after becoming a Christian, I judged and condemned them, thinking I was standing up for godliness.  God loves the world.  He showed me what I didn't even want to see.  He showed me His love for those whom my religion would not allow me to love.  I resisted at first, but His love for the world was too beautiful to ignore.  God still loves the world.

I hated those who opposed my political views.  I thought they were the reason for the world's problems, and if they would change or just be gone, the world would be a better place.  God loves the world.  He let me see them differently than I did before.  This new view was threatening to me at first, robbing me of my moral high ground and the illusion of being intellectually superior, but it's been wonderfully liberating.  I don't fear their voice or opinion anymore.  Perfect love has cast out that fear, and I like how that love feels in my heart.  God loves the world, and it's that perfect love that is the true answer for this broken-hearted planet.

Though I've studied the Bible more than most, and  I've operated in the most powerful gifts of the Spirit, and I've had many faith adventures in my Christian life, I can only truly measure my spiritual growth by the ways I have learned to love the world, as God so loves the world.

I suspect that my love will continue to expand to more and more people of this world, because, well, God loves the world, and this is how one knows we are a child of God.

Does God still love the world?  Yes, He does, and He's loving the world through you and me.  What a wonderful and joyful mission!