“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.”1 John 4.7-12
Thirteen times love is mentioned in just six verses. Thirteen times John emphasizes agape, God’s selfless, divine love, both as a noun and a verb. Thirteen times John reminds us that love is the most important expression of God and to God. (It must be important if it’s mentioned that many times!)
First, friends, John writes, “Let us love one another.” Why? He answers, “Love comes from God.” Anything coming from God is good, and if love comes from God, it must be truly good. Therefore, we should love one another.
John explains, “Everyone who loves,” who shows this expression of God’s divine nature, “has been born of God and knows God.” It’s impossible to love fully if we have not been born of God and know God. Why? Because agape love originates with God. It’s a gift given to those who surrender to Jesus. (Have you given your life to Jesus?)
If love comes from God, how then does God show His love to us? He sends Jesus! “He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him.” So, love is shown by God through sending Jesus, and the purpose of this love, this sending of the Son, is so that we might “live through Him.”
Furthermore, love is defined not as us loving God first, but as God loving us first. “This is love,” John writes, “not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son for our sins.” Amazing, isn’t it? We are nothing without God’s initiation of His love. We don’t naturally reach out and love God; we respond to Him as He loves us.
God affirms this initiation once again by stating, “God so loved us, we ought to love one another.” And because no one has “ever seen God, if we love one another, God lives in us, and His love is made complete in us.”
The goal? To experience and share the love of God. The agape of God, which is the only Greek word for love used thirteen times in this passage! Jesus said the greatest commandment is “loving God and loving others.” He is the reflection of God’s glory, made in the flesh so we might know God and make Him known.
Love. It’s profound but not complex. It’s surprising but not subtle. It’s bountiful and beautiful. And it’s available to you. Do you love God? Just receive His love, and you will find God not only loving you back but loving you first.
“O Lord God, thank You for loving us that we might love You and others in return. Thank You for initiating love, for finding us, saving us, and redeeming us. Thank You for the love that flows from the Father and the Son through the Spirit. Come now, Lord God, help us love one another. Enrich our world with Your Spirit so all might know the power of Your will. For You are good and your love endures forever.” Amen