07.14.2019 – “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. 17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19 We love because he first loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.” 1 John 4:7-21
People parrot the phrase “God is love” in a superficial way. Divine affection isn’t some sappy, sentimental slop. It risks. It suffers. In fact, it is always marked by wrenching sacrifice. The Bible goes to great pains to urge those who have experienced God’s lavish love to turn around and become courageous lovers themselves. Do you show kindness and compassion to the underserving? To cheats and liars? Backstabbers and betrayers? To rude and hateful and cruel people? As an imperfect person, you don’t have such love in yourself. What you do have, however, is Jesus Christ living in you and impacting your actions and attitudes. And that is enough.
