1 John 4:7-21
Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God–for God is love. 9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 10 This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. 12 No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love has been brought to full expression through us. 13 And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us. 14 Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 All who proclaim that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. 16 We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in him. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. 17 And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we are like Christ here in this world. 18 Such love has no fear because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of judgment, and this shows that his love has not been perfected in us. 19 We love each other as a result of his loving us first. 20 If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we have not seen? 21 And God himself has commanded that we must love not only him but our Christian brothers and sisters, too.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.) 1996.
John says, God is love, not love is God. Our world has a very shallow and selfish view of love and has contaminated what love really is. We always hear that if God loves us, He will not punish us or send us to Hell. But that is not love; real love explains why God created us in the first place. Because He loves, He created people to love. God does love all people even those who sin. If He waited until we did not sin to show us His love, we would never know it. But God also gave us a choice to love Him or not because He wanted a loving response from us and not just because He made us love Him. It has to be a choice or there would be no love. But because there is nothing sinful or evil that can exist in God’s presence, He cannot over look or condone or excuse sin. That is why Jesus Christ came because of God’s love for us; because God wanted us to be reconciled to Him. Now we have an advocate or solution to the problem of our sin. With the blood of Christ over us through our choice to believe, we can be with God and be in His presence because we have complete forgiveness from our sin when we believe in the work of Christ Jesus. God’s love will be expressed to us forever. God cannot and will not tolerate sin of any kind and sent Jesus Christ to take the penalty for our sin, this is real love. The world does not want to hear that and so they turn away from God and turn to a religion that tells them what they want to hear. They can continue in sin and say that they are “religious” without stopping their sin. God will have nothing to do with these people on that Day of His return. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit within you as your sin is covered by the sacrifice made by Christ for your sin.
