We often want to define ourselves, or assign our worth, by what we do. People will love me if I can accomplish this or maybe if I perform that. To self-identify this way is disastrous because we will never measure all the way up. Our true worth lies in our relationship with God. He calls us His beloved.
Beloved is defined as one who is greatly loved or one very dear. The NT Greek word is agapetos – divinely loved one. This love bestowed on us by God is an intimate one: tender and unconditional.
Being beloved evokes the picture of a lover (read Song of Solomon) in its affection or a child (repeated in the epistles) in its declaration of one who is unreservedly loved. In John 15, recording some of Jesus’ final words before His death, we find insistent reminders of His love.
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13
God rested His favor on His beloved Son and so He bestows love and favor on us as well. Let me say that again – God bestows His love and favor on us merely because we are His. Love that is independent of our performance, our achievement, our failures … love based only on our relationship. We can run to His arms, rest in His bosom, and feel secure in His presence.
As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. John 15:9
I reject “I am what I do” and embrace that I am who God says I am. I am His beloved. And because I am His beloved, I live with confidence. I am free from fear of failure, free to risk relationship, free to love others unconditionally. I am beloved. And so are you.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 1 John 4:11
