Love Comes First

CONSECRATION Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.  Jesus, I belong to you. I lift up my heart to you. I set my mind on you. I fix my eyes on you. I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice. Jesus, we belong to you.  Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.  SCRIPTURE 1 John 4:7–16 NIV Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. CONSIDER THIS The author of First John makes it clear: God is the origin of love. Love does not begin with us, but with God loving us and sending His Son into the world. His love unquestionably comes first. Our love is always in response to His. Love, in the Christian sense, is not based on our ability to love, but on God’s. His love is the foundation, and it has implications for how we live: “since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (v. 11). Our knowledge of God ought to be measured by our love. This is not about mustering up our own love, but rather, an expression of the love of God in us. God’s love doesn’t come to us and stop. His love nurtures us, finds expression in us, and moves to the world through us. What does this actually look like in our lives? Sometimes it is comforting, but at other times, it challenges us, convicts us, and even disciplines us. This is true in any relationship that involves deep care. Thinking about my own life, those who have loved me most deeply have not only shown affection but have challenged me, said hard things to me, and even offended me at times. God bears His witness to the world, in part, through how we love one another: “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us” (v. 12). Our love for one another reveals God more clearly. “His love is made complete in us” (v. 12). Our participation in it reveals the fullness of its purpose. He loves us so much that His love doesn’t just come to us and stay there, but actually shapes and transforms us. It has actual real implications for us. The language used here is the first-person plural “us.” God’s love is revealed to and in a community. We love and are loved. We don’t just express the love of God to one another, we also receive the love of God through one another. To reiterate an earlier point, the Christian life is a journey of love: receiving it, being transformed by it, and sharing it with the world. This is not a solo journey, but one we go on together. God’s love cannot find its full expression in solitude. We actually need one another to more deeply know and understand the love of God. “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us” (v. 16). This brings us back to the starting statement: God’s love “comes first.” When we know the love God has for us, we find we are free to love in the way He calls us to, beyond our own capacities and abilities. To love as God loves us requires us to rely on His love. God sent His Son so that we might live through Him. His Son came as an atoning sacrifice for our sins, not because we deserved it, but because of His great love for us. In the end, it is only by continually relying on God’s love that we are equipped to love one another as He has called us to. As we do so, God Himself is more clearly revealed to us and His love is made complete in us. RESPONSE PROMPTS Can you think of a time you experienced God’s love through someone else? What does loving one another look like in real, tangible ways in your current context? PRAYER Thank You, Jesus, that You came into the world so that we might have life through You. Thank You for Your sacrifice and the ultimate demonstration of love on the cross. Make Your love complete in us. Help us to love one another. Lead us to know more deeply and rely more fully on the love You have for us. Amen.