Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Today’s Reading  |  1 John 4:7–21 
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.

Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us. Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also. (NRSV)

Reflection
John devotes this entire passage to the topic of love as an amazing gift from God demonstrated by God sending Jesus to atone for our sins and as the right response for us to have to God’s amazing gift.

John’s singular focus on love says two things to me. First, that John understands God really does want a world in which all his followers live lives devoted to loving one another. Second, that John realizes how difficult it is for us, in all our humanness, to fulfill God’s vision.

John could very well be talking to a modern-day audience, pleading with us to please love one another, exhorting us to fully appreciate the magnitude of God’s incredible gift to us by sending Jesus into the world and letting him die for us.

As John’s plea highlights, and as we all know, understanding that we should do this and doing it are two very different things. It means much more than “not hating” someone; than accepting or even liking someone. We are to love them, because God loves us.

And if we can do this—if we can love one another with no expectations and no conditions, if we can love one another simply because it is God’s will—how amazing the world would be.

Prayer
Dear Creator God, thank you for your incredible patience with us. Please give us the strength to respond to your amazing gift of love by loving one another, by loving all our brothers and sisters—particularly those we find most challenging to love. We offer this prayer in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Written by Ed Miller, Member of Fourth Presbyterian Church

Reflection and Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church

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