The verse is John is a very encouraging verse for Christians. God's word promises that no matter how far we've gone down the wrong road, the Lord Jesus is always ready to receive us back with open arms. That is not to say, however, that just because we are Christians, we have this licence to sin. Just because we have this assurance that we will always be welcomed back, does not give us a free reign to do what we like. In fact when become Christians, instead of wanting to go and sin, we should want to spend our lives being more like Christ.

 

Of course this doesn't happen all the time.

Inevitably, because of the flesh inside us, we do sin, but this is where this verse in John comes in! When we do sin, but return in genuine repentance (as the younger son did in Luke 15) God is able to forgive us. The question is asked, "Can you love me again?" and some Christians are worried that they have wandered so far away from God that they can no longer be forgiven. But that would completely go against everything we know about God's character of love. He loved you before you were a Christian, if fact He loved you so much that He gave His only Son to save you! There is no comparison to that! Accepting you back is not even on the same level. Anyway, its not like God ever stopped loving you! The failure is always on our side, God never stops loving us, and He's never further away than a simple prayer. We don't have to win God's favour back, all we have to do is return, return to enjoy the blessings He wants to give us.

 

Can He love us again?

 

Well considering God never has, and never could stop loving you, not when you were an unsaved sinner, and certainly not now as a Christian. If you feel that you've been too bad to go back to God, think again, God has never stopped loving you and is waiting and watching for you to return to Him in repentence.