“We love because he first loved us. 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. 21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.” 1 John 4.19-21
The only reason any of us love God is because God loved us first. John Wesley spoke about God’s prevenient grace, in which God’s grace seeks us out, loving us, pursuing us, wooing us. When we are touched by God’s loving grace, we gain a sense of God’s love and can then love Him back. On our own, none of us would love God—we are sinful, selfish, evil people—but when God first loves us, we can respond in kind.
Once we love God, our actions must reflect that love. We can’t love God and hate our neighbor because that is inconsistent with the love of God. If we love God, we love others. If we don’t love God, we don’t care about others. John says, “Anyone who loves God MUST (emphasis added) also love their brother and sister.” You cannot have one without the other.
Yet, I have seen people love others who don’t necessarily love or know God. How does this work? Since we are all made in God’s image, we all have some of His qualities, attributes, and characteristics. Like a child who looks like her father, we naturally reflect God. This means we have the ability to love, to care, to show kindness, and to offer grace. A person might love others and yet not know the loving embrace of Jesus Christ. Even so, God’s love can be in that person, pursuing them, using that love to reach their hearts so they might enter into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.
As Christ followers, we are called to love. When our community is in need, we love and serve. When someone is in trouble, we love. God’s love abounds, even when those loving have not been born again. They are reflecting the nature of the One who created them, even if they don’t truly know or realize who that is. Love comes from God and returns to Him. God uses love so that the world may know Him. The greatest example of God’s love is manifested in the person of Jesus Christ.
Do you love God? Have you given your life to Christ? Are you loving others as He loved you? Lean into Jesus today. Call upon His name. Seek to live in fellowship with God so that His love might reign in your heart and rule in your life forever.
“O Lord God, we love Your name. Even when the world seems like it’s going to hell in a handbasket, You are loving. You reach out to us and draw us in. You help us make sense of life and live according to Your purposes. Come now, Holy Spirit. Fill us with Your love that we might love others. For You are good, and Your love endures forever.” Amen