God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.

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, which you have heard 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. The one who knows God listens to us; the one 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’s love one another; for love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ By this the love of God was revealed in us, that God has sent His only Son into the world so that we may 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 ever seen God; if we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is perfected in us. ¹³ By this we know that we remain in Him and He in us, because He has given to 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 remains 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 remains in love remains in God, and God remains 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, we also are in this world. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives 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 yet he hates his brother or sister, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother and sister 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 must also love his brother and sister.

Today’s text 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, which you have heard is coming, and now it is already in the world. 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. They are from the world, therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. The one who knows God listens to us; the one who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.  In John 15:18-21 Jesus says: “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you as well; if they followed My word, they will follow yours also. But all these things they will do to you on account of My name, because they do not know the One who sent Me.”  It should not surprise us that there are many people who will not receive us or our words of faith. In truth, it is not those who reject us that we should be concerned about even though they may hate and persecute us. In John 16:33 Jesus says: “These things I have spoken to you so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” We can have peace and confidence knowing that in and through Christ we can and have also overcome the world. We need to be more concerned about the false and deceiving spirits. In Matthew 24:4-5 Jesus says: “See to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will mislead many people.”  Those who mislead many say not only that Jesus came in the flesh, but that He came to indulge in what is fleshy. They say that if Jesus were here today, He would accept and embrace the immorality of our culture. Jesus came in the flesh, not to indulge in the sinful things of the flesh, but to overcome sin and death. Far from embracing the sin of the world, He embraced the suffering of the cross in His flesh, not so that we could indulge our flesh, but so that we could be redeemed from sin. The text says: By this the love of God was revealed in us, that God has sent His only Son into the world so that we may 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.  He died for our sins so that we could live free from sin.

The text ends saying: God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, we also are in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and yet he hates his brother or sister, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother and sister 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 must also love his brother and sister. We love because He first loved us. Our ability to love and our capacity to love is a result of and a response to God’s love for us, demonstrated in the cross.   In Matthew 22:37-40 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.’ Upon these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.” If we, first and foremost in response to God’s love for us, love God with our whole heart, soul and mind, then like Jesus, we will love others, even those who hate us. If we love God, we will also love those He died to redeem. Our love though will not be demonstrated by the acceptance or tolerance of sin, but rather in the demonstration of God’s love. Romans 5:8 says: God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  We are from God. The one who knows God listens to us; the one who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.  Ephesians 4:15 says: Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, that is, Christ.  If we love others, then we should speak the truth to them.

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit, thank You for Your love demonstrated in the cross. Because You loved me, may I learn to truly love. May I love You with my whole heart, soul and mind. May my love for others flow from that love. May I always speak the truth, even to those who do not receive Your word.  Amen.