Daily Devotional Sunday 26th July 2020
by William Moody1 John 4:7–12
God Is Love
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 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. 10 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. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
(ESV)
Love has to be central in the Christian’s life because God is full of love (v7). True love comes from God to us through rebirth and entering into a relationship with God. John is very clear, if we do not love, we do not know God (v8), we have not entered into a relationship with God.
God is love (v8b); His nature, His character, His life are all consumed with love. All true love comes from God and we can only fully know what love is when we know God.
God’s love has been demonstrated in sending His Son (v9). It is interested though how John here describes what Jesus has come to do. He has come that we might ‘live through Him’. This surely means live a new life of love. With a love that is different, deeper and richer than what we knew before.
John shows that God’s love took the lead, before we ever loved Him, He sent Jesus to be a propitiation which means to propel away God’s wrath for sin (v10). This amazing love is what should motivate us to love others (v11). Loving others is a sign that God is abiding in us (v12). Love comes through our knowledge of Christ and also our experience of Christ within us.
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