1 John 4:7-10 The Message
God Is Love
7-10 My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can’t know him if you don’t love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
As Christians, we are encouraged to love one another which includes ourselves.
So in a world where love is defined in many different ways, who better to look at and follow His example than God, who is love (1 John 4:8)?
Like 1 John 4:16 explains, “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
1 John 4:7-10 New King James Version
Knowing God Through Love
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 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. 10 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.
Please, in this moment, stop what you are thinking about to take a few seconds or minutes and think about all the undefinable depths of love Jesus has for you.
Depending on the day, the time of day, circumstances of the day, perhaps you feel a barrier, because we may know all too well, how we often fail, falter, take our eyes off our King, and at times maybe even want nothing to do with Him.
But God is here to tell all of us right now that in those exact moments, Christ’s all-encompassing love is yet all the more present and there to sustain you!
For He has chosen all of us, though we each will fail, called each of us His own, though we will certainly falter, that we all have a place at His table even when our gaze is not perfectly fixed and laser focused on the divine host.
So, in the coming moments, in the hours, days ahead do think about how Christ’s love for you is like a consuming ocean you cannot swim away from.
Do think about that He is the greatest joy in times of both defeat and triumph.
Do think about that He is your deepest comfort, hope, in your most trying of sorrows. Oh, what love he has for his children…Oh, what love he has for you!
So, now is as good a time as any, join me in praising God, for His persistent love.
Praise God, that He continually reveals to us what love is even right now.
Praise God, that he first loved us which enables us to, therefore, go and love on others exactly where they are.
So today, remainder of this week, continually, let there be no shortage of love from the children of God especially during the times we are all experiencing.
Ask Jesus right now, to reveal to you how to love others through you as He has so graciously, so indelibly, covered you in his love.
Love Others First – but be sure to include yourself because you matter to God.
For many, love is a reciprocal response.
Someone loves us, so we love them back.
This all started with God, as 1 John 4:19 tells us, “We love because He first loved us.”
So what if, like God, we just start loving other people first?
So, what if, like God, while loving others, we also included ourselves – first?
Often this is easier said than done.
Especially if, maybe like me, you’ve experienced a time when someone decided they just didn’t like you or when that someone was YOU not loving yourself.
In these cases, we usually don’t know why or what is the reason behind their feelings or even our own feelings for that matter.
When something like this happens, we can choose to overlook their attitudes toward us and love them anyway.
Sometimes our unconditional love will win them over, but sometimes it doesn’t.
Still, that’s the risk we take when we choose to love others first.
In these situations, we get a taste, a very small glimpse of what God has been dealing with down through the ages in loving those who don’t love Him back.
In everyday life, we’re given countless opportunities to step out and love others in our homes, churches, workplaces, and communities.
We have countless opportunities where we can choose to even overlook our own feelings in the matter-considering God’s love for His own Son through the ages.
Love others and ourselves Even When It’s Messy
God knows loving men and women in their sins is pretty messy.
God knows exactly how well we love others, how well we will love others.
God knows how well we love ourselves, how well we will love ourselves.
But, God cuts through all that messiness with this indelible truth …
Romans 5:8 explains, “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Likewise, parenthood helps many men and women understand how God could love us in our messes.
It’s also good training ground for learning how to love others in their disarray.
All around the world, moms and dads face unpleasant scenarios in taking care of children.
From diaper disasters, food mishaps, exploring incidents, and more, parents push through the chaos to keep loving and caring for their children.
Likewise, loving others can be messy, especially when walking through various situations with them that are uncomfortable, unpleasant, or inconvenient.
Love others and ourselves Sacrificially
Real-life TV shows of love, romance, and marriage often give insight into how individuals view love and what they believe loving one another involves.
Frequently when a prospective bride or groom is asked how they fell in love with the other person, his or her answer involves how the other person’s love makes them a better person or feel special and loved.
But what if once married, the other person stops making them feel like a better person – what happens if they stop feeling loved by their spouse or children?
For many couples, whether married for a few years or longer, with children or not, they start to realize that love isn’t about how a spouse makes us feel but rather establishing just what costs are we willing to pay to show them love.
Are we willing to give up our pride, selfishness, resources, plans, and more if needed to love our husband or wife or dare to go ahead, including ourselves?
John 3:16 describes the high cost God was willing to pay to demonstrate His love to us “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
God demonstrated the high cost of loving others and how to love sacrificially.
He deliberately, intentionally, paid the ultimate price to prove His love to us.
As the Author, Creator, and only Source of love, He modeled what it means to express love to those around us by loving us first, loving us in our messiness of our breakdowns, break ups, faults, failures and sin, and loving us sacrificially.
Intersecting Faith and Life:
Are you willing to lovingly reach out to others this week?
Are we willing enough, daring too, to lovingly reach out to ourselves this week?
If so, ask God to help you love others, being sure to include loving yourself like He loves you by loving self and them first, sacrificially, and in their messiness.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Psalm 23 New King James Version
The Lord the Shepherd of His People
A Psalm of David.
23 The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not [a]want.
2 He makes me to lie down in [b]green pastures;
He leads me beside the [c]still waters.
3 He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life;
And I will [d]dwell in the house of the Lord
[e]Forever.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 