English 
Chinese 
Dutch 
Arabic 
Spanish 
Portuguese 
Russian 
French 
Italian 
German 
Japanese 
Continue reading with a subscription
Get unlimited access to all our premium content and exclusive features.
Enjoy unlimited access, cancel anytime.
Summary
- Paul wrote of “the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20), and the Catholic Catechism quotes the verse to teach that Jesus gave himself “for each one of us.”
- The New Testament gives the reason for that love in God: Christ died for people “while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:8; 1 John 4:10, 19).
- Jesus measured his love by his Father’s love for him and by laying down his life (John 15:9, 13).
- Paul lists death, life, angels, rulers and “anything else in all creation” as unable to separate believers from God’s love in Christ (Romans 8:35–39).
- For times when that love is not felt, Jesus’ parables of the lost sheep and the prodigal son (Luke 15) and Thérèse of Lisieux’s “night of my soul” show God seeking people who feel far from him.
- Churches differ on whether a believer can finally fall away, and on whether Christ died for all people or effectively for the elect.
- “Jesus loves me, this I know” comes from a poem by Anna Bartlett Warner in the 1860 novel Say and Seal, set to music by William Bradbury in 1862.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture quotations from the English Standard Version: Deuteronomy 7:7–8; Matthew 5:44–45; Mark 10:21–22; Luke 15:4, 7, 20; 23:34; John 3:16; 8:11; 10:11; 13:1; 15:9–10, 13; Romans 5:8, 20; 6:1–2; 8:1, 35–39; Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 3:18–19; Titus 3:5; 1 John 2:2; 4:8, 10, 19; Revelation 1:5; 3:19. Greek of Revelation 1:5 from the SBL Greek New Testament; the King James Version for its reading “loved.”
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 478, 605 and 1861. https://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/478.htm
- Westminster Confession of Faith (1646), chapter 17, “Of the Perseverance of the Saints.” https://opc.org/wcf.html
- Canons of Dort (1618–19), Second Main Point of Doctrine, articles 3, 5 and 8, Christian Reformed Church translation. https://www.crcna.org/welcome/beliefs/confessions/canons-dort
- The United Methodist Church, Articles of Religion, articles XII and XX. https://www.umc.org/en/content/articles-of-religion
- “Jesus Loves Me,” Wikipedia, citing Susan Warner and Anna Bartlett Warner, Say and Seal (Lippincott, 1860), pp. 115–116, and William B. Bradbury, Bradbury’s Golden Chain (1866). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Loves_Me
- “Jesus Loves Me, This I Know,” Hymnary.org, with John Julian’s Dictionary of Hymnology entry on Anna Bartlett Warner. https://hymnary.org/text/jesus_loves_me_this_i_know_for_the_bible
- Thérèse of Lisieux, Story of a Soul (L’Histoire d’une Âme), tr. Thomas N. Taylor (London: Burns, Oates & Washbourne, 1912), chapter IX, “The Night of the Soul.” Project Gutenberg eBook no. 16772. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16772
Leave a Reply