Okay. So I know it has been a very long while since I have written a blog, and so I hope that there are still people out there that are reading our blog. I wanted to share my thoughts on some scripture that I read tonight. These are my initial thoughts and I don't claim them to be completely perfect in the sense of having complete
illumination, but I do believe that I am taught by the spirit of Christ, for I know in part. I merely post them because this is what I believe scripture is saying. Now onto the scripture.
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
