Scripture: 1 John 4:7-21
After a brief interlude on the teachings of Gnosticism, we return to the theme of love. And while that Love-Heresy-Love pattern may be jarring, 1 John is a pretty circular book. (I checked a very official-looking outline, and indeed, in this part of the book the professor has Love-False Teachers-Love, so yeah... Yahtzee!)
So we return to the familiar and, well, beloved topic of love. What more does John teach about how God affects the love we experience in our lives?
I hate to be lazy, well okay scratch that I love to be lazy in general, but specifically I hate to be lazy on this blog by just making lists, but... in this case I think a list will help clear up how God fits into our love schema:
- Love comes from God (4:7)
- Love comes from rebirth and knowing God (4:7)
- God is love (4:8, 4:16)
- Love for each other comes from God's love for us (4:11, 4:19)
- Love comes from living in God and God living in us (4:16)
God is Himself the source of human love. His love for us inspires us to love, enables us to love, and causes us to love. In fact, John goes so far as to say that if someone isn't loving people, he must not know God.
John teaches, unsurprisingly, that the knowledge and experience of God's love that frees us to be loving people is tied to Jesus.
"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."
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