daily bible readings

The Source of Love - 1 John 4:7-8

Feb 03 2020

If you were to honestly look at the love shared among a chapter of the Hell’s Angel’s gang (as a random  example) and any particular church, you might get some rather nasty surprises. Within the bikie gang, you would see, if you looked honestly enough, a dedicated and devoted love for each other. Such love is expressed in a willingness to die for each other as they engage in brawls and drive by shootings, bombings and so on of other gangs. Within the church, you might see a rugged individualism and a stoic approach to life. You might see bickering, heartache and a negativity towards each other.

Of course, the above picture is painted with a tongue-in-cheek skew to make a point. When we talk of love we cannot realistically say that non-Christians do not or cannot love each other. Unbelievers can have a fierce passionate love for each other that sometimes eclipses Christian love.  Yet, at the same time, we have to admit that there is something unique and unreproducible in Christian love.

To make headway, we need to think of God’s love for the world. God is love and, as such, is the source of all love.  Jesus makes clear in Matthew 5:45 that God “causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” God has a particular kind of love for the unsaved and unbelieving.

However, there is a more specific and focused kind of love that God has for believers. This is a saving love that is expressed primarily in the coming of His own Son, Jesus, into the world to save us from our sins. It is a love that is willing to die for the eternal blessing of the beloved. This love is initially expressed by God to His enemies to bring them into the kingdom as friends and as beloved children.

Without this distinction, 1 John 4:7 could be very misleading. When John declares that “everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God” he cannot be talking about the unbeliever who loves others in his/her group.  If this, in fact, were the case, we would have to concede the damnable doctrine of universalism. Under this theory, everyone is saved and no one is condemned. Such a view has such catastrophic internal consistencies that it cannot, with a reasonable mind, be believed and accepted as truth.

Only those who have been born again through faith in the Son of God know God and live in His saving love. Only those who are Spirit-filled believers are born of God and know God richly and intimately. Only those who are good soil can bear the fruit of this God-given love towards others in the church and even towards those not in the Church.

And so, returning to our opening skewed example of the church, we have to admit that divisions, rugged individualism. a stoic approach to life, bickering, heartache, a negativity towards each other, hatred, jealousy and so on have no place among a church of people loved and saved by the blood of Jesus Christ. These negative things destroy the love of God and make a mockery of the blood of Jesus which was sacrificially shed at Calvary on our behalf. But, they are there at times. However, the Spirit of God is continually working to bring a deeper, richer and more Jesus-like love into the hearts of each and every single believer.

Prayer:

Adoration:

  • Adore God for He is love.
  • Adore the Lord Almighty for showing us the extent of His love by sending His one and only Son to die for us on the cross so that the work of satan might be destroyed in our lives.

Confession:

  • Take time to confess your sins to the Lord and to ask for forgiveness.

Thanks:

  • Thank God that He has lavished you with His love.
  • Thank God that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Supplication:

  • Pray that your church would be constantly growing a culture of love and sacrificial giving to each other.
  • Pray that this love would speak volumes to the unbelieving world and that many would see us as Jesus’ disciples and more so, that many would come to know the love of Jesus for themselves.

Discussion Questions

  1. A nonbeliever says to, “You Christians love each other, so does my group. What makes your group any different to us?” How would you answer this unbeliever?
  2. What does it mean to love one another?

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