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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 reason for that love lies in God, not in us: 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 for his friends (John 15:9, 13), and Paul says that death, life, angels, rulers and “anything else in all creation” cannot separate believers from God’s love in Christ (Romans 8:35–39).
- When that love is not felt, the lost sheep and the prodigal son (Luke 15) and Thérèse of Lisieux’s “night of my soul” show God seeking those 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” began as a poem by Anna Bartlett Warner in the 1860 novel Say and Seal, and William Bradbury set it to music 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
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