Charles Wesley shares a heartfelt discovery in his hymn titled, "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling." He refers to God's love, and how it excels all other loves. C. S. Lewis wrote a book in 1960 titled The Four Loves, wherein he summarizes four kinds of human love — affection, friendship, erotic love, and the love of God. John writes about this fourth love, agape, divine love in 1 John 3:1-3. Let me ask three questions.

Do you have an appreciation of the outpouring of divine love? 1 John 3:1 reads, "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him." This refers to the possibility of being a child of God. This verse reveals a division between those who are children of God and those yet to become children of God. Jesus explains that those who are children of God should expect to be hated and persecuted by those who are not (John 15:18-21). James warns, "Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God" (James 4:4b).

Do you have an actualization of the outreach of divine love? 1 John 3:2a reads, "Beloved, now we are children of God..." This refers to the reality of being a child of God. John 1:11-13 reads, "He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." Can you honestly confess, "Lord I believe, Lord I receive"?

Do you have an anticipation of the outcome of divine love? 1 John 3:2b-3 reads, "and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure." This refers to the totality of being a child of God. In Titus 2:14 we read about Jesus, "who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works." This delightful prospect motivates us to the daily practice of purity. Paul exhorts Timothy, "keep yourself pure" (1 Timothy 5:22). Someone points out that we are to be pure in thought (Philippians 4:8), in word (Ephesians 4:29), and in deed (1 Timothy 5:22). After Isaac Watts contemplated this divine love that sent Jesus to die on the Cross for the sins of mankind, he writes, "Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all."

May you come to experience this "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling."

Dr. Franklin L. Kirksey, of Robertsdale, is the author of "Don't Miss the Revival! Messages for Revival and Spiritual Awakening from Isaiah.