Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 1 John 4:7-12
Love is from God. God's act of love is preeminent, his was the first act of love, there was no motive, motion, or act of love that ever took place before God's act of love. So love originates from and out of God. God defines what love is, sets the standard, and is in fact love. One cannot truly love without knowing God. A person may think they are performing an act of love towards someone, but this is only truly an act of love if they know God. How can this be? How can an act of love be defined as an act of love only if the person knows God? Because God shows us and manifests love by sending his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. What was loving about that? In that, this is love, not that we loved God and deserved his act, but that he loved us and sent Christ to propitiate or satisfy the wrath of God without us having earned that act. The reason that love is defined by knowing God is because, knowing God is defined by knowing and believing in Christ. No one who rejects or doesn't understand Christ can possibly know the father. And since Christ is the ultimate and preeminent act of love, one cannot truly love without knowing Christ. Why is that? I don't claim to know fully, but I believe based on scripture that it has to do with understanding the Gospel. See, we as humans do not have the nature to love a completely wicked person without having strings attached to our act of love. We do not naturally love a wicked person without them having to earn our act of love. When someone has to earn the act that we supposedly call love, that is not love, that is called winning someone over. On the other hand, a right understanding of God leads to understanding his love, which leads to understanding Christ, which leads to understanding true love. True love isn't earned, it is given, regardless of what a person does. When John encourages us to love, he roots it in knowing God and understanding the gospel of Jesus Christ. Unless a person know this, then their love is not true love.
Father, may we know you so that we may know what love is, namely you sending your Son without us having to earn your act of love, so that you satisfied your wrath in Christ and therefore brought us back to yourself. May we understand that act of love so that we can truly love others as you have loved us. Amen
4 comments:
Welcome back to the blogoshpere, Jerm.
Your post reminded me of this passage in Revelation 2:
2“‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.
What always strikes me is that the church at Ephesus seems to be a church with a lot of great things going on! However, they 'abandoned the love [they] had at first" and risk having their lampstand removed for that alone. I often have to pray for the ability to love my neighbor as myself and to love my brothers. Anytime I love I know that it comes from God because I know that it does not come from me; I have years of evidence against myself to prove it.
Not sure if I changed the topic or not but this was what I thought of first.
Good to be back. You would be surprised at how refreshing it is to actually be able to sit down and think about scripture instead of just reading it.
Yeah, anytime I read verses like those I always have this moment kind of like when you startle a cat and it jumps up on all four legs and looks at you. I just have to stop and think if that is applicable in my life, which it always is and then pray and ask God to some how work that into my life.
Yes, welcome back Jeremy! We are not as interesting without you... note the number of videos. lol
Anyways, the first thing that came to my mind as I read your post was marriage. Not knowing Christ, and therefore not knowing true love, is the main reason the bonds of marriage are so often broken. It concerns me when "Christian" get divorced saying they just aren't in love anymore, and I guess my concerns are warranted.
We meditated on similar scripture during our Women's Worship gathering last week.
John 13:34-35
34 A new commandmentI give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
John 15:12-13
12"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
Jesus not only commands us to love one another but He tells us that "By this [love for one another] ALL people will know that you are my disciples."
This made me realize how often I we get so caught up in my own life that I fail to extent the love of Christ to the people I come in contact with. If we do not show love towards one another then how can we ever be a testimony of Christ's love to the unreached?
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