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 ought to love one another.1 John 4:7-11
The gospel writer John, true to his pattern to develop the same subjects, each time broadening and expanding, and enhancing their significance, returns again to the moral test of love. Describing what perfect love is, is to describe what the heart of God looks like. Yet, it is personafied in Jesus Christ, and John is emphatic about it being availiable to all men. John introduces the reader to the first of 5 reasons why Christians love: because God is the essence of love. The gnostics of John’s day believed that God was immaterial spirit and light, but never defined the source of love as coming from His inmost being. As He is Spirit (John 4:24), Light (John 1:5), and a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29), so He is love. Love is inherent in all He is and in every act He does. Even His judgment and wrath are perfectly harmonized with His love. Let us love one another—This phrase is the key to the entire text; That we must be sure that love is a habitual practice and that those who are truly born again do exhibit the characteristic habit of love, because those who are born again receive God’s nature inside of them. And since God’s nature exhibits love as a chief characteristic, God’s children will also reflect that love too! Propitiation—The word means “appeasement” or “satisfaction” The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross satisfied the demands of God’s holiness for the punishment of sin.
Beloved Friend, Someone may profess to be a Christian but only those who display love like their heavenly Father actually possess His divine nature and are truly born again. Is this the love that describes you?
May the Lord bless your walk today!
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