A Study Through the Letters of Johnનમૂનો

Day 7: Being People of Love in God

(Read 1 John 4:7-21)

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: 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. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 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. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

Reflection on the passage:
Even as we use the word “love” casually, whether in “hearting” a post or speaking of our favorite dessert, love is what all humans most deeply long for - love in the truest, deepest sense. In this passage, John tells us not only that God is the source of this love, but that God is Love, and that if we have truly been born of God, we will be conduits of His love to each other.

John powerfully expresses the truth that love is eternally at the very core of God’s being as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All love begins in God – He is the grand initiator. God has made this love known in the most ultimate way to His creatures by sending His Son to deal with our sin once and for all. By dying in our place and being our righteousness, He gives us life. Unfathomable!

Further, John describes how we receive this amazing gift of His love. It happens when we say ‘yes’ to Jesus, acknowledging Him as the Son of God. As we receive His love, God lives in us and we live in Him! A sure sign that this is happening within us is that His love will pour out from us. This will be most evident in the Body of Christ as love is given and received among the believers. Another sign of our abiding in Him is that we will become motivated less and less by fear, and more and more by the love of God within us.

John reminds us that there is no place for hatred towards our brothers and sisters if we are God’s people. This means all our brothers and sisters in the Church, and among people groups. If we find hatred in our hearts and actions, we have turned away from God. We must repent and turn back to the One who is Love. Then we will be able to demonstrate God’s love to a world desperately longing for it.

Focus verse for prayerful reflection:

"No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” (1 John 4:12)

Reflect on a time when you have “seen God” through the love of other believers. What about a time when you have experienced the reality of God living in you as you expressed love to another person? Talk with Jesus about the ways that His love is being made complete in you.

For further reading:

Read John 15:1-17 about the vine and branches. How does this connect with this passage?