Monday
1 John 4.11 “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
Once again, John’s unbreakable logic. Since we are loved by God beyond any measure we can calculate, love then becomes our defining response to others. We love as we have been loved; we forgive as those who have been forgiven; as recipients of God’s grace we become agents and witnesses of that same grace. “Inscribed upon the cross we see, in shining letters ‘God is love.’” God’s love never leaves us as God found us- we love others because God first loved us,
Tuesday
1 John 4.12.”No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is made complete in us.”
Read that again! God is not seen through the mystical experiences of the super-spiritual. God’s presence is made obvious through the interchange of love amongst those who have come to know the love of God in their own transformed lives. God’s love is made complete, comes full circle, when it is reproduced in the communities of Christ. In other words, loving one another as God loves us is not optional, it is the natural outcome of God’s love reaching out in generous kindness, gestures of peace, efforts to understand, and care for the fabric and health of the community of Christ.
Wednesday
1 John4.13-14 “We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son too be the Saviour of the world.”
As Paul said, “The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” John is a skilled advocate gathering the evidence that reassures his community of believers. The Spirit is the living evidence of God at work in our lives as individuals, growing and establishing the faith of this fellowship of believers in Jesus. What is more, the Spirit is the living testimony of the love of the Father in sending the Son, and of the love of the Son who has come as the atoning sacrifice for sin and as the Saviour of the world. That’s how “We know that we live in him and he in us.”
Thursday
1 John 4.15 “If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.”
In John’s time there were those who denied that Jesus was truly and fully the Son of God. Since earliest days, the confirming evidence of being a Christian is a public confession of Jesus as Son of God, crucified Saviour and risen Lord. John keeps coming back to the spiritual reality that God lives in the new life of the believer and they live in God. God is the sphere of life in which we live, and God is the source of life which enables us to walk in the light and to live in the love of God. The Christian community is an energy hub of the love of God lived out in practice.
Friday
1 John 4.16a “And so we know and rely on the love of God for us.”
It was once said of R. W. Dale, a famous preacher in Birmingham, that he hammered his points home so forcefully he was in danger of splitting the wood! John does go on, and on, about how we know the love of God. But it is the repetition of emphasis, and the force of a spiritual argument intended to reassure. Apostle John is a pastor, building up and encouraging believers who had started to doubt the truth of God’s love, and the lived reality of salvation through Jesus’ death. He want them to rely on the love of God, to depend for dear life on the truth that whatever else is real, God’s love is the ultimate reality, and the foundation of everything else.
Saturday
1 John 4.16b “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.”
Just in case you’ve not have been paying attention, here is the whole argument in summary! John’s letter has sometimes been compared to a spiral, he keeps coming back to things he has said before. But he has his reasons. He wants to make clear, one and for all, that Christian assurance rests not on how we feel, but on the fundamental truth of who God is. God is love. God is light. God is Spirit. The presence and work of the Spirit in our lives is confirmed by mutual love, faith in Jesus as Saviour, walking in the light, and knowing we have an advocate with the Father.
Sunday
1 John 4.17 “In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.”
Love is made complete when the love of God comes full circle and comes to full expression through the work of the Spirit in our lives. Confidence before God is based entirely on God’s work within us by the Spirit, applying to our hearts and minds the truth of Jesus as Saviour and Advocate. John is giving a threefold proof that we are indeed children of God: possession of the Spirit, confession of Jesus as Son of God, and living in the love of God. That’s a threefold cord not easily broken!
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