Could It Be Any Clearer?

Tuesday, April 22, 2014         Could It Be Any Clearer?

1 John 4: 7-21

Could it be any clearer? “But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. We love each other because he loved us first” (1 John 4:8 &19).

Over the centuries the church has legislated love and purity: Do this, don’t do that; say this, and don’t say that. These rules missed John’s point entirely. When you are in a relationship where you love, and you are loved, you do not need rules to tell you to be faithful. Your life is shaped by love, and your fidelity is a natural fruit of your love. Your love not only shapes your life in your loving relationship, it shapes your life entirely. Your love overflows into all the people you encounter.

John is showing us that God meets our every need to be loved, accepted and to be valued.  It is God’s intent that when we open ourselves to His love, His love overflows out of our lives, and into the lives of others. God’s love for us was not just empty words. Christ died for us while we were still sinners. Our love for others should not be just empty words. We are the children of God.

Humankind experiences two primary emotions: love and fear. John tells us that God’s love for us “has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear” (1 John 4:18a). When we are convinced of God’s love for us, when we no longer harbor fearful thoughts about our relationship with God, when we are fully persuaded of our right standing with God, won for us by the blood of Jesus Christ, then we experience God’s perfect love dispelling all traces of fear from our relationship with Him. But wait, there’s more! “We love each other because he loved us first” (1 John 4:19). God’s love for us liberates us from the fear that separates us from others. With that fear gone we are free to love others as Christ loves us. This is what the Apostle Paul meant when he wrote: “For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him” (Philippians 4:13) God gives us the desire through His love working in us and His love working in us empowers us to act on our Godly desires.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

• Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

• The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

• Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.