2002-01-01
Good Morning Dear Ones,
When I first read today’s passage, I was a bit concerned about sounding repetitious in any comments that I made about it. Then, the Lord reminded me as I prayed about this that He often repeats concepts He feels are important, so that we will understand how much they mean to Him. So, who am I to interfere with this process? The phrase “God is Love” has been said often enough to sound trite, but the Lord of our lives really wants us to know what this means in a very practical way. 1JN 4: 7-12, “Dear friends, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Whoever loves is a child of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God for God is love. And God showed His love for us by sending His only Son into the world, so that we might have life through Him. This is what love is: it is not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the means by which our sins are forgiven. Dear friends, if this is how God loved us, then we should love one another. No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in union with us, and His love is made perfect in us."
I have cited a number of Scriptures since I began writing this series on 1JN, which I feel should be mentioned again. Rather than write them out again, I list them here for your convenience in reviewing them. LV 19: 18; DT 6:5; MT 5: 3-12 (Sermon on the Mount); MT 5: 44-45 (Love for enemies); MT 22: 37-39; LK 10: 27b; JN 3: 16, 13: 34-35, & 15: 9-24; RO 3: 24-26; RO 5: 8-10 & 8: 35-39; RO 14: 13; 1COR 13; 1JN 3:1 & 4: 7. These give us God’s teachings, but there are some others which give us ways to put these teachings into practice.
The need for people to love each other is something God recognized even before Adam and Eve committed the original sin. It even became greater afterward. That is why I believe that God inspired Solomon to write the book of Proverbs. Let’s look at a sample of some of these words of wisdom that have to do with demonstrating God’s love toward each other and its effects. PR 10: 6, “A good man will receive blessings. A wicked man’s words hide a violent nature. Christ taught this same principle in a practical way when He warned against “wolves in sheep’s clothing” in MT 7: 15, “Be on your guard against false prophets; they come to you looking like sheep on the outside, but on the inside they are really like wild wolves.” PR 10: 12, “Hate stirs up trouble, but love forgives all offenses.” The destructiveness of holding grudges and acting or refusing to act because of them is a subject that I hope to write about in the future. God’s view on that is vital to us in my opinion, because I have seen first-hand what it can do to families. PR 10: 18, “A man who hides his hatred is a liar. Anyone who spreads gossip is a fool.” Obviously, these are not the acts of a loving person, patterning his life after the ideal set for us by God. PR 10: 32, “Righteous people know the kind thing to say, but the wicked are always saying things that hurt.” PR 12: 18, “Thoughtless words can wound as deeply as any sword, but wisely spoken words can heal.” PR 13: 9, “The righteous are like a light shining brightly; the wicked are like a lamp flickering out.” When we become true believers, we are given the ability to discern when someone is reflecting God’s light in the way he lives his life. That kind of person not only does God’s service serving others, but he is a faith-builder. He is the living embodiment of God’s love.
There is a passage in COL that helps us to deal with our need to relate to a God we have never seen. COL 1: 15, “Christ is the visible likeness of the invisible God. He is the first-born Son, superior to all crated things.” Because Christ was incarnate, was sent by God to live as we do and experience the pain and temptation that we do, we are shown that God has great compassion for us. That is why the reminder of HE 4: 14-15 is so important to us. “Let us, then, hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we have a great High Priest Who has gone into the very presence of God-Jesus, the Son of God. Our High Priest is not One who cannot feel sympathy for our weaknesses. On the contrary, we have a High Priest Who was tempted in every way that we are, but did not sin.” The availability of Christ to us is one manifestation of God’s love. Another is suggested by the phrase, “God lives in union with us.” That is the gift of the Holy Spirit indwelt in us that Christ sent [see JN 15: 26-27]. The last phrase of 1JN 4: 12, “His love is made perfect in us,” is crucial. God can actually use the amount of true love we demonstrate as a measuring rod of how we are doing in the process of sanctification. We need to remember that He is toiling hard to further us in that process, so that we will be ready when the time comes to meet Christ in the air (be raptured, be glorified, and receive our “resurrection bodies”). We also need to remember that all of this, our salvation, justification, sanctification, and eventual glorification, comes to us by God’s invitation. This invitation was extended out of His love and compassion for us while we were still His enemies. We certainly have no reason to ever doubt the love He has for us or the love He wants us to reflect in our lives.
PRAYER: O Lord, because of the limitations of human perspective in comparison to Yours, You loved us enough to give us both theoretical and practical guidance on the issue of love. It is a privilege that You extend agape (unconditional) love to us by inviting us to live “in Christ” and to do Your work. This invitation has come at huge cost to You when You had to sacrifice Your Son on the cross so that salvation could be made available to us. Through Him, You gave us the Holy Spirit to live within us and guide us through the process of sanctification. While they may not always seem small to us, the adjustments You ask us to make in our lives to conform to Christ’s model and further Your work are really small requests in view of the huge reward for them that You offer. It is most remarkable that You equip us to make these adjustments. We are humbled and awed by the depth of Your love, particularly when we are so undeserving. You deserve nothing less than our trust, obedience, worship, adoration, praise, and thanks for showing us what real love is. We celebrate the fact that worship of You will be our most important calling in heaven, just as it is here on earth. In Christ’s name, amen.
There is enough in this section of 1JN 4 to write at least two more messages on it, so that is what (with your patience and permission) I will do. Tomorrow, we will look at 1JN 4: 13-18. I am feeling the aura of God’s love surrounding me, and it is my sincerest hope that you are too. I don’t see how we can read the words He inspired John to say and not feel it. Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn