We love because He first loved us.

1 John 4 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. ² By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; ³ and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. ⁴ You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. ⁵ They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. ⁶ We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

⁷ Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸ The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. ⁹ By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. ¹⁰ In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. ¹¹ Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. ¹³ By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. ¹⁴ We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

¹⁵ Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. ¹⁶ We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. ¹⁷ By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. ¹⁹ We love, because He first loved us. ²⁰ If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. ²¹ And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.

Once again, the words of John, who personally witnessed the crucifixion of Christ, are pretty straightforward and even blunt. He says:  Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.  Can you imagine the reaction today, if we called people who believed differently the antichrist? There are many spirits that we can choose to follow, but there is only one Holy Spirit. Of all the ways that we have found to wrongly divide people, by race, ethnicity, age, gender, social standing; the only one that really matters in the end, is whether they are believers in Christ.  “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)  That’s why it may be blunt for John to say it, but it is the truth spoken in love.

In Mark 16:15-16 Jesus says:  “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.”  His words too are very clear and they impose on us a great responsibility.  The text says:  Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.  In John 14:15 Jesus says:  “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”  That too, is a very clear statement and one of the most important commandments we will keep is to preach the gospel; to testify that God sent His Son to be the Savior of the world.

Our world and our society today is filled with fear and anxiety. The text says:  There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.  Perfect love, the love that casts out all fear, is the love of God. Romans 5:8 says:  God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  Once we have accepted God’s perfect love, demonstrated in the cross, we have no reason to fear anything in the world. In John 16:33 Jesus says:  “In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”  When we have accepted and received God’s perfect love, we can say, like the psalmist in Psalm 23:4:  Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me.   Even death is merely a shadow with no lasting power over the one who receives and believes in God’s perfect love.

The text ends saying:  We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.  Our ability to love and our capacity to love is not founded in or based on human standards. Rather it is based on God’s love for us demonstrated in the cross. That we are called to love others, is also based and founded in the perfect love of God. In Matthew 22:37-39 Jesus says:  “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”  We love God in response to His perfect love for us. Then we love others as we ourselves are loved, pointing them toward the cross, the demonstration of God’s perfect love.

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit, thank You for Your perfect love, demonstrated in the cross, that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. Through the power of the resurrection and the abiding and indwelling Spirit of God may I speak of and demonstrate Your perfect love to the world.   Amen.