1John : Day 8 : God is Love

Day Eight: God is Love

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.  Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.  In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.  In this is love, not that we have 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. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.  And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.  Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.  So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us.  If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.  And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.

1 John 4:7-5:1 (ESV)

While researching for today’s devotional, I came across a story about John the Apostle.  In his later years, he had to carried to church meetings.  At the end of service, the people would stand him up for a benediction and would always say, “Little children, let us love one another.”  Most of the people grew tired of hearing this because they heard it all the time.  So they asked him why he would repeat this statement over, and over again.  John replied, “Because it is the Lord’s commandment, and if this only is done, it is enough.”  As you have probably gathered, this book has to do with a lot about love.  Even as I write this, I wrestle with how am I going to write about this again.  But the most important things bear repeating and new perspectives give a more complete understanding.

A great summation of the Gospel can be found in verses nine through eleven, 

In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.  In this is love, not that we have 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.

In this we see action and reaction.  What we tend to forget is that Jesus did not have to die for us, God the Father did not have to love us.  They loved us because it was a part of their divine nature.  When I first started my seminary education, I had a professor claim that love is God’s main attribute, and that every attribute stems from that.  I would argue that love is God’s character, and His character controls His attributes.  Jesus died for us because He was obedient to the Father and wanted us to have reconciliation with the Father.  I find it crazy sometimes that God loves me.  I wonder what He ever saw in me that would ever make Him say “that’s my son!”  I don’t see it.  But when I think of what God has saved me from and the possibilities of what He is saving me to, it is overwhelming.  If God could ever love me, then I should be able to love my brother or sister.   

My two favorite verses in this passage are back-to-back.  Verses 18 and 19 state, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us.”  In previous lessons we have talked about love setting us free from the bondage of sin, and love giving us confidence to go before God; now we see that perfect love drives away fear.  This goes part and parcel with the other two.  The reason we do not have to fear God is because that punishment has already been paid for by Jesus.  Because of this, God sees us as His children.  We have nothing to fear because He desires an intimate relationship with us.  And the only reason we can love is because He first love us.  To explain the origin of the universe, Aristotle deduced that there was an unmoved mover who was the primary cause of all existence.  Thomas Aquinas later used this in his theology and explained that the unmoved mover is God.  This applies to love as well.  We could not come up with love on our own, it was imprinted on us.  It exists because it has a beginning.  God, who existed before time, had the characteristic of love, and we too can know what that is because we belong to Him.