- March 26, 2022 SO ALSO ARE WE
- 1 John 3:18,23 “Little children, let us not love with words or with tongue, but in deed and truth,” “And this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.” 1 John 4:10-12, 16-17 “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. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought to love one another. No one has beheld God at any time; if we love one another, God aides in us, and His love is perfected in us.” “And we have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in Him. By this, love is perfected with us, that we may have confidence in the day of judgement; because as He is, so also are we in this world.” Because we use the word love so lightly and so often, we may have lost the true meaning and the power of love. We know that there are different words for love, but the love that makes a difference and the love that transforms us is the love of God. 1 Corinthians 13 gives us a clear picture of what the love of God looks like in practical terms. The book of 1 John is about the love of God and how it impacts our lives; as we read this book, we are challenged to evaluate our love to see if indeed we are living out of the love of God, or out of mere human love. Love originates in God; God is love, and it was out of His love for us that He sent His Son to be the sacrifice for our sins that we might be restored to Him. There is nothing more powerful than the love of God; it was the love of God at work in the creation of the universe, the creation of man, and the redemption of man. The monumental question for us is have we ‘come to know and believe the love which God has for us.’ Or, we might ask how the love of God has and is impacting our lives on a daily basis. This passage of scripture begins by admonishing us not to love with words, but to love in deed and truth; the love of God will be expressed in action and His love is based on truth. As we read on in this passage we find that the love of God is not something we conjure up; knowing and believing the love of God produces certain fruit in us. This is where many get it wrong; we do not do loving deeds in order to get God’s approval, or because that is what Christians are supposed to do. Knowing and believing the love of God is the catalyst for love being expressed in deed; the love of God moves us to action-just as God’s love moved Him to action; that is why John said that “as He is, so also are we in this world.” John says it in a simple but profound way: “if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.” May we abide in the love of God.
Blessings,
Buddy
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