1 John 4:7-21 "Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God..."

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only 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 atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives 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. And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.
God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us. Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also. (1 John 4:7-21)

Comment:

The overall purpose of this writing (and we don’t know for sure who wrote it) is to refute the views of certain teachers who denied that God had really become man in Jesus. We can know the truth, this author writes, because “God is love,” and whatever creates in us an experience and expression of love must therefore be of God. “From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error” (1 Jn. 4:6).

In understanding this beautiful passage, it’s important to recognize that the “Son of God” is not simply Jesus of Nazareth. It is the Christ, the Presence of God in each of us. In recognizing the Christ in Jesus, we are affirming the same Christ in ourselves: “we abide in him, and he in us.”  Jesus taught that we can discern the true from the false “by their fruits,” and clearly love is the most purely divine fruit of all. If we can truly distinguish between the infinite, unconditional energy of divine love and the fear-based, possessive energy of mortal desires, we can be certain that we are expressing our Christ self and fulfilling our spiritual purpose.

Blessings!

Rev. Ed