“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God,
and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God because God is love.
By this was the love of God made manifest among us,
that God sent His only-begotten Son into the world,
that we might live through him.
In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us
and sent His Son as the propitiation for our sins.
Beloved, if God loved us like this, we also should love one another. . . .
And we have known and have trusted the love that God has for us.
God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”
1John 4:7-11, 16b
God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”
1John 4:7-11, 16b
One choice you will never have to make is the choice between loving people and doing the will of God. They are always the same thing. You cannot choose one over the other.
John, I like this thought a lot. Love is love.
ReplyDeleteI was reading this the other day and it struck me in a similar way: 1Jo 5:2 "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments."
When we love God (in spirit and in truth), we are loving people no matter what it looks like to them, or even to us; and when we keep his commandments we are always loving the children of God, at least. (I'm certain we are loving ALL people by obeying the commandments, even though it is unspoken here.) When we don't obey God's commandments, we are not loving God's children like we want to. It hurts people who love us when we don't obey God because they hurt for us, and it hurts their hearts NOT to see God's praises not coming forth from our lips like they ought to.
And I really liked what you said last night again about the fact that Peter and the others who loved Jesus were working against Jesus dying for us, and those who hated him were actually getting God's work done. Without the Spirit, men can do wrong at best - but Jesus still loved those who loved the Son with their hearts, and make a way for their love to be expressed in the future, despite themselves. That's a LOT of love.
Gary