Chapter 4
Verses 7-11:
"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 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. 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 also ought to love one another."
With that first sentence "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God..." I think it might be appropriate to qualify the meaning of the term "love." When John talks of love here, he is not talking about some kind of romantic mushy love that wears off over time, nor is he talking about a love that is just accepting to all sorts of people living in all sorts of deadly and unrepentant sins, as some today seem to think is Christianity's intent. That being what "love" is not, perhaps I should attempt to define what love is, though I think I will have to make another blog about this some other time. Dealing with the passage above though, John says "let us love one another," reminiscent of Jesus's words to the Pharisees:
Matthew 22:35-40:
Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
In other words the Law can be broken down into two categories really, the love of God and the love of your neighbor/brethren.
But more than that we have been shown a perfect love by God the Father:
"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." Looking over the life of Jesus as He walked this earth, the believer reading the bible sees example after example of someone who showed more generosity and compassion and charity than we could ever hope to match. But above all, above all other things He did, there is one thing that Jesus has done that is entirely unfathomable to our minds. And it is that statement above.
Take a second to dwell on that point, and understand what this means for a minute. What is being said here is more powerful than anything in this world, it is something that no other religion can offer. It goes on, "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He love us and sent His son to be the propitiation for our sins." One thing I know and the rest of believers, is that we did not love God, we did not seek God, we did everything to deserve the hatred and condemnation of God and deserving of nothing but eternal hell. But as mentioned above, "God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might Live Through Him" (emphasis added).
"God is love" which to a mind set on God is not too difficult to understand. We did not love God and yet He sought us out and found us (Isaiah 62:12), opened the eyes of our heart (Ezekiel 11:19), enabled us to have faith to repent and believe in His son (Mark 1:15), then justified us for nothing in ourselves but by His grace (Ephesians 2:8), and adopting us into a family that we can never ever be divorced from (Galatians 3:26).
"Beloved, if God so love us, we also ought to love one another." We are His followers and as such we attain to be perfect as He is (Matthew 5:48).
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1 comment:
Good post. It's good to make the point that "God being love" does not at all exclude His also being a just God, who punishes sin perfectly. People say that "a loving God would never send anyone to hell." Well, He is also perfectly just, and those who sin and refuse the means of salvation He has provided, justly deserve to be punished, as we all did were it not for Christ.
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