Wednesday, March 12, 2008

1 John 4:7-21

Knowing God Through Love


7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

These statements concerning love must be understood from the context of God’s (agape, in the Greek) love. I am sure the vast majority of unbelievers and those who would not claim to be born of God would argue that they love others, especially their own families. God’s love is God Himself and those who live, or abide, in God will live and walk in His love. Those who do not know God cannot live and walk in His love because they have not yet made access to Him.

9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.

God put His great love on display by sending His Son to restore our access to His love and life through His Son Jesus.

10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

It was not our love for God that motivated Him to send His Son to die and pay the price for our sins, but it was His love for us. This is how God’s love is distinguished from human love: while we were in rebellion, our backs turned to Him, He pursued us.

11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

Are we loving those who do not love us? Jesus said that it is easy to love and do good to those who love us and could return the favor, but even sinners do that. To stand out as God’s children, we must love and do good to the ungrateful, expecting nothing in return. Our thanks and reward will be stored up for us in heaven. See Luke 6:30-36.

Seeing God Through Love

12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.

Though we are not able to look upon God with our natural eyes, He is revealed to us by His creation. How could anyone say that they love God, yet despise a brother who has been made in the very image of God? If we love one another like He loves us, it proves that God lives in us and that His love is in complete control of us.

13 By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.

God sent His Spirit to live in our spirits so that we could live in His Spirit, thus making us one with Him. When we invited Him to sit on the throne of our lives, He also invited us to sit with Him in His.

14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

God sent His Holy Spirit to reveal His Son, Jesus, to us, in us, and through us. Our confession of Jesus as the Son of God must be more than words, it must be a lifestyle of doing the works of Jesus. Confession must have corresponding action to be true. In the mouth of two or more witnesses every truth must be confirmed. Our words are one and our actions are the second witness.

16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

Our spiritual life is inseparable from God. As earth’s atmosphere provides everything necessary to sustain life in the natural, God’s love and presence create the necessary atmosphere to sustain us spiritually. Our spirit man must breathe in, as it were, the Spirit of God, then eat and drink the word and the living water.

The Consummation of Love

17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.

In previous verses, John spoke of the boldness and assurance that those who walk in love would have to enter His presence and to receive the requests that they ask of Him. Now he speaks of the judgment day in a similar way. Love has been perfected, or made complete, in us when love’s desire and mission have been accomplished. God’s love judged and punished His innocent Son in our place and provided innocence for us, equal standing with the risen Christ at the right hand of the Father even while we are yet in this world. Jesus’ love for His bride fully consumed Him and love’s mission was accomplished. When love has fully consumed us, there is no room left for tormenting fear. The process of maturing in love includes self examination: judging ourselves here, in this life, that we will not fear that final judgment day.

19 We love Him because He first loved us.

We can only love God and others the way that He does as we receive His love. Without His love, we are an empty vacuum desiring to be filled. By nature, we usually seek fulfillment with the things offered by this world. His love has already been poured out. It endlessly flows toward us all: we only have to open up and receive it.

Obedience by Faith

20 If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.

Jesus summed up the whole law and the prophets in these two commandments. Love the Lord with all your heart, soul and mind and, love your neighbor as yourself. The two go together; we cannot truly love God if we do not love our neighbor. Some of us may have a problem loving self which will keep us from rightfully loving anyone else. We must loose our old identity, as a child of Adam, and grasp our new identity, as a child of God. It requires faith to see that which does not readily appear. Though my Adamic nature may rear its ugly head now and then, I must believe, by faith, that I am a new creation in Christ and focus on what God is making new in me.

No comments:

Born of Women or Born of God?

Among all who were born of women there's not one greater than John the Baptist, but he who is least in God's Kingdom is greater than...