7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. I John 4:7-10
The simplest and yet most profound truth ever given proclaims, “God is love.” For many, this may also be the most forgotten truth. Isn’t it just like human nature to ignore or forget that which is most fundamental? Therefore, let’s understand how the truth, God is love, becomes fundamental to all of life.
First, this truth establishes the source of all love, and all relationships. “Let us love one another, for love comes from God.” My approach to marriage and family, friends and enemies, and co-workers and fellow church members must demonstrate that I am perfectly loved by God. Distant acquaintances and strangers should notice God’s love in me. (Even my dog should notice.) If I fail to love in any of these relationships as God loves me, then I bear a false witness against God and against His love for us.
God’s love represents the source of all love in every relationship. To love others genuinely requires God’s love. May we live in such a way that others are benefited and blessed by the love of God.
Second, this love has the highest standard: “whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.” If I love conditionally (loving with the “if”), then I act like I do not know God, for He loves me unconditionally. If I love while refusing to let go of past hurts, I love as if I do not know God, for He has not held our sins against us as His children (2 Corinthians 5:19, “God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting people’s sin against them”). If I withhold love, because this seems to make a point of grievance toward someone, then I love as if I do not know God, for He has never withheld His love from me. On and on the implications could go. But if we truly know God, we will relentlessly love others as He loves us. And when we fail, we will quickly repent and return to such love.
Third, this love has as story – the greatest story: “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him.” The greatest story ever – the story of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, serves as the foundation of all love, the proof we are personally loved, and the commission of how we should love others unconditionally.
Fourth, this love expresses sacrificial love. “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” God went to the furthest degree, expended the highest value – His Son, and made the most complete expression of sacrifice ever to reveal His perfect love for you and me. How can we sacrifice so that others know such love? What have we personally expended recently (time, energy, resources) to show the love of Christ to someone?
This is love! This is love given and this is love shared.
Thanks be to God, and to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We have all we need to live, to love, and to live loved.
Blessings,
Ken
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Read I John 4:7-21 to be reminded of how we are to live loved.
