Why do we love? 1 John 4:7-21

1 John 4:7-21

I first gave this devotional on my first mission trip to Guatemala. I just opened the Bible and started flipping through passages and I stumbled upon 1 John. Now, this is arguably one of the most important passages to read in the new testament. It answers a very important question for us: Why do we love and where does it come from?

v.7 This passage tells us just in the first verse that those who love are born of God. That they know God intimately and have a relationship with him.

v.8 Then it flips it and says those who do not love, do NOT know God. Why? Because GOD IS LOVE.

v. 9 - 10 After this the Gospel is proclaimed. That God showed is love for us by sending His Son into the world so that we might live through Him. Then it makes a very good point....

“not that we loved God, but that He loved us.”

The Bible tells us in Romans 3 that no one seeks after God. There is no one who is righteous and that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Romans 8 also tells us that we are foreknown, predestined, called, justified, and glorified. Keyword being ‘foreknown’.

We only know God because He first knew us.

v.11 points out that since God loved us even while we were still sinners, we should love one another. The very love that God shows us should be reflected in the relationships that we have with other people.

v. 12 tells us that no one has ever seen God (the Father), but if we love one another, God lives in us. We know from other scriptures that it is His Holy Spirit that dwells in us. And that is a gift from God. This is the spirit of love that has been poured into our hearts.

v.15 says that if anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God that God lives in them. Some translations use the word ‘abide’. That word abide has many different synonyms, ‘put up with’ ‘tolerate’ but there are two that I want everyone to focus on. ‘to comply with’ ‘to stand by’

When we comply with with Him, He stands by us. V.13 tells us that we know that we abide in Him and He in us because why? Because He has given us His Holy Spirit.

v.16 repeats ‘God is love’. Whoever lives in love lives in God and God in them.

v.19 We only love because He first loved us. We only know God because He first knew us. How grateful I am for the Lord and His love for me, that He would pay the price that I should have to pay...

Love is forgiveness. You cannot have love without forgiveness. If you don't know love then how can you know forgiveness. God IS love. Therefore, if you do not know grace how can you know God? In the absense of forgiveness there is the absense of love and therefore the absense of the love of the Father in a persons heart. It is clear that those who refuse to forgive, likely, have not experienced Gods grace. That does not come from me, it comes from....

1 John 4:20 “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.”

v.21 we are then left with a command: If you love God, you must also love one another. This reflects what Jesus said in Matthew 22

Matthew 22:37–40 NIV

Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

I pray that this blessed you and that we all abide in God and in love. Love comes from God, because He is love. So love one another as you should. God bless.