“God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” 1 John 4:16b (NAS)
This principle would almost elicit a “well, duh!” response. Of course God is love. After all, He loved us first and proved his love by giving his son as our eternal Savior. It is easy to love someone who sacrificed himself so we would live. Wouldn’t it be logical, therefore that as we continually possess and exercise this sort of love, we would also continually enjoy intimacy in God?
Yet, John writes about an almost incomprehensible love. It begins in God. He is the source of it. We have this love only in relationship with God. We remain in this love only by maintaining our relationship with God. There is more to this love than mere emotion, baseball . . . apple pie . . . and mother’s day. John connects this love to our loving one another (read verses 7-21). He virtually insists that our love for one another is evidence that we have a true relationship with God.
Why did John have to muddy the love waters? We love people who are like us. We even like those who are not like us, but who are likeable and lovable. We are tempted to ignore John’s teaching, however, when it forces us to consider our attitudes toward those among us who rub us the wrong way. The obnoxious ones. The contrary ones. The grubby ones. The snooty ones. The ignorant ones. Yes, we all know who they are.
But John didn’t commanded us to love one another . . . our Lord did. He said, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another” St. John 13:34 (KJV). He also repeated this command two more times to the twelve (St. John 15:12 & 17). I believe Christ meant it, don’t you? Perhaps excuses just won’t cut it anymore. Maybe we should allow God to truly love our brothers and sisters through us. After all, it is shows that we are truly in God and that God is truly in us.
Dear Father, thank you for the love you bestow upon your children. Deliver us from partiality and grant to us the quality of love that expresses our relationship in you. O Lord, empower us to constantly express this love. I pray this in the name of Jesus. AMEN
Be encouraged today living in love,