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.
11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
12 No one has
ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made
complete in us.
13 This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit.
14 And
we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the
world.
15 If anyone acknowledges that
Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God.
16 And so we know and rely
on the love God has for us.
God
is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
Loved First
1 John 4:7-16
One of the phrases we hear much in church that
we need to love. Love is central to the Christian life. When compared to faith and
hope, love is greater.
1 Corinthians 13:13 ESV
[13] So now faith, hope, and love abide, these
three; but the greatest of these is love.
However, loving other people is not an easy thing.
It can be very hard to love someone who has wronged or hurt us. We need divine intervention
to love. John tells us what the source of love is. It is not that we can force ourselves
to love. Love does not come from our personality, skills or will; it comes from
God.
1 John 4:7 ESV
[7] Beloved, let us love one another, for love
is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
Our love comes from God and if we love, we show
we have been born of God and know God. In other words, our relationship with God
allows us to love. Furthermore, John defines love as an action and not a feeling
or a thought.
1 John 4:9-10 ESV
[9] 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. [10] 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.
Love moves towards its object of affection. God
came to us and stayed with us. God did not sit in Heaven. He came as a person, Jesus Christ, and
lived with us. God came not just to live with us, but to live in us.
1 John 4:13 ESV
[13] By
this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
We have his spirit, but we have to have faith.
1 John 4:15 ESV
[15] Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of
God, God abides in him, and he in God.
There is no work we need to do. There is no formula
we have to complete. God did the work and we need to believe that He loves us.
When our hearts feel closed or we find it impossible
to love, John reminds us to go back to the place we were loved first. When our faith
is restored, love will come naturally.
God is not telling us to try harder, but to go
back to the cross. We don't become more loving, so that God will come into our hearts.
God has already given us the gift to love, we just need to return to the truth that
God loves us.
