Authors today recognize the power of love. They write, “Love is powerful because it speaks to some of the most fundamental aspects of human nature.
“It can create a sense of connection, belonging, and purpose, and can inspire us to be our best selves.”
John was the beloved disciple. During the three years he spent with Jesus, he experienced God’s love and wrote about it from a unique perspective.
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 (1 John 4.7-8).
If love is such a powerful aspect of life and if love originates with God, why is it that John has to command followers of Jesus to love?
Can it be that some people are easier to love than others?
You may have heard the expression “EGR people,” but you certainly know people who need extra grace. We may need a command to love because of the “Extra Grace Required” people whom everyone encounters.
The first readers of John’s letters experienced hardship, persecution, and oppression.
Jesus taught, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5.44-45).
We are children of the heavenly Father because we have been “born of God.” God is love and his children take on the central virtue of his character, love.
God’s love transformed us from enemies to friends and he expects us to do the same with our enemies.
Enemies to Friends
When was the last time that you spent some time meditating on the cross?
Christian leaders throughout history frequently turned their eyes to the cross to draw inspiration for living.
John invites us to this practice to deepen our 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 (1 John 4.9-10).
Rudy Ross has a few guiding principles in his life. I have discovered them as we produce YouTube videos on the Bible.
One central guiding principle for Rudy is “God so loved the world.”
If we let God’s love, demonstrated through the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, activate and motivate our lives, we will mirror his love.
From Meditation to Action
The famous Methodist missionary, E. Stanley Jones spent a night in the Garden of Gethsemane. His meditation on Jesus’ night there and the crucifixion deeply affected him.
God’s love that embraced Jones moved him to action. As a missionary to India, he stood with the people in their efforts to obtain freedom from colonial rule.
Jones lived out the reasoning that John stated in his letter.
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 abides in us, and his love is perfected in us (1 John 4.11-12).
Jones and other Christian ministers set good examples that we should follow. Let’s spend some time in adoration of our Savior before the cross.
Let’s ensure that we turn our meditation into action by loving God and one another.
YouTube Video
Rudy Ross and I continue our study of 1 John today. Our video can be found on the Bob Spradling YouTube channel.
Real Voices 