Bible League: Living His Word Dear friends, we should love each other, because love comes from God.— 1 John 4:7 ERV Church tradition tells the story of the Apostle John, feeble and almost completely blind, being carried from church to church to share the profound wisdom and experiences from his time with Jesus. Often, the younger people would clamor to see and speak with John on his visits and it is told when asked what is the most important thing to know as a Christian, John would stress to "love one another" as taught by Jesus (John 13:34). With all the confusion and chaos going on in the world today it is easy for one to be cynical and judgmental toward the world and people. But as messed up as people and the world can be there is one constant: GOD IS LOVE. Love is not God, as some would want you to believe, but rather God is love and we have all been created by God in His image not only to be loved, but also to love others. Much of the problem with the people of the world is that their concept of love is without God; they end up trying to fill their need to be loved and love in all the wrong places. Our passage speaks to the one true love which can only be found in God's love. Beginning in verse 7 of 1 John 4 and going through verse 8, John tells us God is the one true source of love. Just as light and heat flow from the sun as the source, so does true love flow from its source: God. It is a love that provides the believer with strength for the day, rest from the labor, light for the way, and grace in the struggles. The good news is that this love from God has been bestowed toward each of us through Jesus Christ, the full embodiment of God's love. John goes on in 1 John 4 that God is not only the source of true love, but also that God is the true giver of love (verses 9-10). From the gifts of the creation to the precious gift of God's Word, it is God who is the true giver of love. It has been said that where creation is the "art" of God's love to us, His word is the "heart" of God's love to us. It is that heart of love who sent His Son, the Word, who died for us. This is true love. So with God as the source and giver of true love, John goes on in 1 John 4:11-12 to explain that such love of God will be evidenced by our practice of God's love. To know God's love is to share God's love. To share God's love is to practice God's love. To practice God's love is to love one another. Previously in 1 John 3:15, the Apostle shares that hate is impossible with God's people. As with Jesus, there is to be no place in our heart for hate, but only love manifested through repentance, grace, mercy, compassion, caring, and sharing. God's love practiced is real and sincere, not to be done for the glory of men, but for the glory of God. Beloved of God, as we navigate a world that so desperately wants to be loved but is blind to the need for God's true love, let our hearts be found full of compassion and humility, so that the world sees the true love of God in us and pouring out of us. As Jesus showed us the way of God's love, let us be the lights of that way bringing people to the place where they really need to be, which is God's love. By Pastor David Massie, Bible League International staff, California USA Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingPsalm 96, 97, 98 Psalm 96 -- Psalms of Praise (1Ch 16) NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Psalm 97 -- The Lord reigns! Let the earth rejoice! Let the multitude of islands be glad! NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Psalm 98 -- Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things! NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Romans 12 Romans 12 -- Offering yourselves as Living Sacrifices; Revenge forbidden NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion But no one had the courage to speak favorably about him in public, for they were afraid of getting in trouble with the Jewish leaders.Insight Everyone was talking about Jesus! But when it came time to speak up for him in public, no one said a word. All were afraid. Fear can stifle our witness. Although many people talk about Christ in church, when it comes to making a public statement about their faith, they are often embarrassed. Challenge Jesus says that he will acknowledge us before God if we acknowledge him before others. Be courageous! Speak up for Christ! Morning and Evening by Spurgeon Genesis 9:15 And I will remember my covenant.Mark the form of the promise. God does not say, "And when ye shall look upon the bow, and ye shall remember my covenant, then I will not destroy the earth," but it is gloriously put, not upon our memory, which is fickle and frail, but upon God's memory, which is infinite and immutable. "The bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant." Oh! it is not my remembering God, it is God's remembering me which is the ground of my safety; it is not my laying hold of his covenant, but his covenant's laying hold on me. Glory be to God! the whole of the bulwarks of salvation are secured by divine power, and even the minor towers, which we may imagine might have been left to man, are guarded by almighty strength. Even the remembrance of the covenant is not left to our memories, for we might forget, but our Lord cannot forget the saints whom he has graven on the palms of his hands. It is with us as with Israel in Egypt; the blood was upon the lintel and the two side-posts, but the Lord did not say, "When you see the blood I will pass over you," but "When I see the blood I will pass over you." My looking to Jesus brings me joy and peace, but it is God's looking to Jesus which secures my salvation and that of all his elect, since it is impossible for our God to look at Christ, our bleeding Surety, and then to be angry with us for sins already punished in him. No, it is not left with us even to be saved by remembering the covenant. There is no linsey-woolsey here--not a single thread of the creature mars the fabric. It is not of man, neither by man, but of the Lord alone. We should remember the covenant, and we shall do it, through divine grace; but the hinge of our safety does not hang there--it is God's remembering us, not our remembering him; and hence the covenant is an everlasting covenant. Daily Light on the Daily Path 1 Corinthians 1:28 and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are,1 Corinthians 6:9-11 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, • Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. Ephesians 2:1-3 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, • in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. • Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. Titus 3:5,6 He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, • whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, Isaiah 55:8 "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," declares the LORD. New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org. |
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