October 16, 2019 WE HAVE COME TO KNOW
1 John 4:16: “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.”
Have you come to know the love that God has for you? Knowing the love that God has for us is the greatest knowledge that one could ever have. The knowledge of God’s love for us revolutionizes every aspect of our lives-it changes everything. It is not enough to know with our mind only that God loves us; but for the love of God to have its full impact on us, we must know in our spirit-in our heart- that God loves us. God loved us before we loved Him as we see in 1 John 4:10: “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.” As we see in 1 John and Romans 5:5; God has poured out His love within our hearts through the Holy Spirit. One evidence of God’s love is that we love God and we love others. 1 John 4:11: “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” In fact, according to I John 4:8: “The one who does not love, does not know God, for God is love”- a sobering verse indeed. Another evidence that we know the love of God is that we do not live in fear. 1 John 4:18: ” “There is no fear in love; but perfect love cast out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.” If and when we find that we have fear, let it be a reminder that we need to bring our attention and our focus back to the love of God. We can trust and we can rest in the love that our heavenly Father has for us even though we may not fully understand why things happen the way they do.
In our culture, the word “love” has multiple meanings. To understand the love that comes from God, we can get a clear picture of what love looks like in 1 Corinthians 13. In this chapter, we get to see in practical ways love being expressed. Just to mention a few snap shots of love from chapter 13, we see that; love motivates us to give; love is patient; without love we are nothing; love is kind; love is not jealous; love is not arrogant; love does not seek its own; love does not act unbecomingly; love does not take into account a wrong suffered; love rejoices with the truth; love bears all things; believes all things; hopes all things; endures all things; and, love never fails. We must ask ourselves if our life, our relationship to those closest to us, reflect this type of love. The good news is that having this type of love is not something we have to do in our own strength; but as we discover the great love that God has for us has been poured out in our heart, we will find ourselves expressing His love-and it will look like the love we see in chapter 13. The love of God changes us at our core, making us new, enabling us to love. It is possible for us to grieve the Spirit of God in us and thereby not live in the love God has for us. May we continually be being renewed in the love of God and may we be living expressions of His love in our day-to-day lives.
Philippians 2:3-4: “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself; do not merely look out for your own personal interest, but also for the interest of others.”
1 John 4:19: “We love, because He first loved us.”
Blessings,
Buddy
1 John 4:16: “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.”
Have you come to know the love that God has for you? Knowing the love that God has for us is the greatest knowledge that one could ever have. The knowledge of God’s love for us revolutionizes every aspect of our lives-it changes everything. It is not enough to know with our mind only that God loves us; but for the love of God to have its full impact on us, we must know in our spirit-in our heart- that God loves us. God loved us before we loved Him as we see in 1 John 4:10: “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.” As we see in 1 John and Romans 5:5; God has poured out His love within our hearts through the Holy Spirit. One evidence of God’s love is that we love God and we love others. 1 John 4:11: “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” In fact, according to I John 4:8: “The one who does not love, does not know God, for God is love”- a sobering verse indeed. Another evidence that we know the love of God is that we do not live in fear. 1 John 4:18: ” “There is no fear in love; but perfect love cast out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.” If and when we find that we have fear, let it be a reminder that we need to bring our attention and our focus back to the love of God. We can trust and we can rest in the love that our heavenly Father has for us even though we may not fully understand why things happen the way they do.
In our culture, the word “love” has multiple meanings. To understand the love that comes from God, we can get a clear picture of what love looks like in 1 Corinthians 13. In this chapter, we get to see in practical ways love being expressed. Just to mention a few snap shots of love from chapter 13, we see that; love motivates us to give; love is patient; without love we are nothing; love is kind; love is not jealous; love is not arrogant; love does not seek its own; love does not act unbecomingly; love does not take into account a wrong suffered; love rejoices with the truth; love bears all things; believes all things; hopes all things; endures all things; and, love never fails. We must ask ourselves if our life, our relationship to those closest to us, reflect this type of love. The good news is that having this type of love is not something we have to do in our own strength; but as we discover the great love that God has for us has been poured out in our heart, we will find ourselves expressing His love-and it will look like the love we see in chapter 13. The love of God changes us at our core, making us new, enabling us to love. It is possible for us to grieve the Spirit of God in us and thereby not live in the love God has for us. May we continually be being renewed in the love of God and may we be living expressions of His love in our day-to-day lives.
Philippians 2:3-4: “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself; do not merely look out for your own personal interest, but also for the interest of others.”
1 John 4:19: “We love, because He first loved us.”
Blessings,
Buddy
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