Musings on First John (4:7-12)

⁷ Dear friends let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ 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. ¹⁰ This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹ Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 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.

I highlighted the word love not just because it shows up 13 times in these few verses, but because it is the central them of the entire Bible. God is love. God loves us. The proof of how great that love is was demonstrated almost two thousand years ago when He sent His son to die for us, to be the sacrifice for our sins. I don’t think we can come close to understanding this. As a parent I would sacrifice myself for my children, but I could never sacrifice my own child for anyone else. (Could you?) But I do think I could at least try to love others. Look at the promise in the last verse: if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

EXODIA