7 Dear friends, let’s love each other, because love is from God, and everyone who loves is born from God and knows God. 8 The person who doesn’t love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how the love of God is revealed to us: God has sent his only Son into the world so that we can live through him. 10 This is love: it is not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son as the sacrifice that deals with our sins.
11 Dear friends, if God loved us this way, we also ought to love each other. 12 No one has ever seen God. If we love each other, God remains in us and his love is made perfect in us. 13 This is how we know we remain in him and he remains in us, because he has given us a measure of his Spirit. 14 We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the savior of the world. 15 If any of us confess that Jesus is God’s Son, God remains in us and we remain in God. 16 We have known and have believed the love that God has for us.
Reflection
One study bible I regularly refer to offers this analogy. As sure as the magnetic pull of the earth causes a compass to point north, the magnetic pull of God’s love at work in your heart will always point you to others who need love.
Another resource offers multiple reasons why Christians are able to love because of God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit:
Love is inherent in all God is and does. Even God’s Judgement and wrath are perfectly harmonized with His love. Since God’s nature exhibits love so will God’s children also reflect that love.
To display love like our heavenly Father is to have the nature of Christ.
It was God who sent Christ into the world as the greatest gift ever given so that we might have life eternal.
by Clarence Beverage
For Pondering and Prayer
When I read verses 11 – 16 I feel that it is ok that I feel inadequate in my inability to be all loving. We are all a work in progress as long as we strive to be more loving. So how should I strive?
There is nothing that I have ever accomplished that did not require setting aside time. In this case we are talking about a lifetime of purposefulness.
Talk with Jesus.
Be near other people who love God.
Find ways to serve others and listen for the Holy Spirit.
What are your thoughts?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for the good things that happen each day. Help us to recognize and be thankful for the the good in each day. May we, through the power of your Spirit, become more sensitive to our negative thoughts so that we can be more loving. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
