Loving and Abiding

I Jn. 4:16

So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in Him.

 

 

Chapter 4 of I Jn. further proves the unbreakable relationship of loving and abiding. It is like a step-by-step process where love produces abiding and abiding means loving, and abiding and loving mean loving others. 

• Beloved, let us love one another for love is of God. -This is the command. If I am beloved of God, then I am dwelling and abiding in His love and His love abiding in me will pour over into the lives of others.
• Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love. It is impossible to know God without experiencing His love because He is love! If I know Him and His love, then I will love others!!
• In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. This is the visible presentation of God's love. His Son Jesus coming into the world, sacrificing His life, dying and rising again so that I might live through Him. What great love!
• In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. John restates the visible evidence of love and clarifies it showing clearly that love came from heaven downward, was initiated before I was aware or had even responded, and provided atonement for the sin that controlled my life. 
•  Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. Sounds simple enough! If I grasp in any way the magnitude of what God has done, I should love as He did. He is my example! If I am called Beloved, then love must characterize my life, love for God and for others.
• No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us. Here is the final part of the triangle of love. God abides in me and His love is perfected in me when I love others. The triangle must be complete and unbroken. I can not have the love of God for myself and not love others and I must be abiding in Him.
• By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. The gift of the Spirit makes all this clear. He is God's presence within us. He is the One who leads, guides, teaches, and brings all things to our remembrance. He is the grace-dispenser and the power-perfecter giving me the ability to love others.
• Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.  I do believe! Wow! It means God abides in me and I in Him. What more could I want?
• God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in Him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment because as He is so also are we in this world. John puts it all together here. It begins with God is love, and within His love I can abide and He can abide in me, and because of His love, I can love others as Jesus did. As He is so am I. I am His hands and feet to love others not with my puny love, but with the all-sacrificing, monumental love of God.
• We love because He first loved us. It is that simple! If I say, I can't love someone, then I don't love God. If I can't love my brothers who I can visibly see then how can I love God whom I can't see.
• Whoever loves God must also love His brother. Final word on the subject! How powerful is this set of verses!

 

Father,

I love You and Your Son, but I must confess, at times, I do not love others as You have loved me. Perfect Your love in me through Your grace and power. Teach me more about abiding so that I may keep my love tank full to the brim and ready to be poured out to others.

In Jesus name,

Amen