1 John 4:7-21
Wednesday, 26 January 2022
“Dear friends, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Whoever loves is a child of God and knows God.” -1 John 4:7 [GNT]
Beloved, it’s a great privilege to be partakers in sharing the love of God. How did He demonstrate His love? “And God showed his love for us by sending his only Son into the world, so that we might have life through him.” (1 John 4:9) God gave His best- His only Son to pay the price of sin of all mankind so that we would be saved! As children of the Most High God, we are encouraged to demonstrate his unreserved love to humankind for the glory of His name.
Though we choose to express the love of God most often we are tempted to be limited because of the negative reactions towards us by the very ones to whom we try to express God’s love. Love in itself and the demonstration of it goes beyond human comprehension. As humans, we would always like to express love to those who agree with us in all that we do or reciprocate love when extended. But Romans 5:8 says: “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” (Romans 5:8)—not when we were worthy! Whenever we genuinely share the love of God with others even when they don’t deserve it, we come face to face with our Creator who is pleased to see His children express and demonstrate His love.
It’s not enough to just say “I love you brother/sister.” True Love always protects, is patient, encourages, rebukes with the sole aim to help the brother/ sister and also discipline with compassion. As 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 teaches: Love is patient and kind; it is not jealous or conceited or proud; love is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable; love does not keep a record of wrongs; love is not happy with evil, but is happy with the truth. Love never gives up; and its faith, hope, and patience never fail. That’s the kind of love we as God’s children are called to practice.
There are countless numbers of instances in Scriptures where God tests the measure of man’s love for Him. Abraham was asked to offer his only son Isaac; Adam failed his test in the Garden of Eden; David a man after God’s heart, though loved Him, yet failed tests from God on several occasions; Solomon after doing so great to demonstrate how much he loved God, could not resist going to serve the idols of his pagan wives. Joseph, Ruth, Esther, Daniel and others went through tests of various levels to demonstrate to humankind their love for God.
In all of these challenges, God demonstrated his unconditional love in order to help us to understand that he is God and his Love goes beyond measure! It is not how much we have expressed love, but how passionate we are to remain loving God and patiently continue loving our fellow beings.
1 John 4:9 says “We love because God first loved us.” We did not choose to love Him first, He first loved us and encourages us to love one another. His love is unconditional and is beyond human perception and reasoning. Yet God’s love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5) and being recipients of His great love, we are to become radiators of it to our fellow beings.
The command Christ has given us:
Whoever loves God must love others also.
(1 John 4:21)
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