Description
In 1 John 4:11, the apostle lays down a profound challenge: to love as we have been loved.
1 John 4:11
Beloved, if God … (visit YouTube for more)
Transcript
The Apostle John issues quite a challenge in 1 John 4 verse 11. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
And John has just talked about the way in which God loves us, how he’s shown that. He’s shown it by dying for us. And because of the nature of the Trinity, he’s shown us by sending his Son to die for us. And so John concludes that we also, having been loved that much, also ought to love one another that much.
And I find it easy to love people who are nice to me. I find it easy to love people who are kind to me and with whom I get along. But it’s much harder, isn’t it, to love people who aren’t nice to us. We struggle, don’t we, to love those who to our minds don’t deserve love.
And yet, John says, Look at how much God loves us. Look at it! That then should provoke us to love everyone, even, and especially those who we wouldn’t naturally love.
This is a hard thing to do, and I don’t feel like I have it in me. So we must ask God to fill us with his love and his compassion, mustn’t we? That’s the only way we can hope to live anywhere near this standard. Will you pray with me?
Father God, we recognise that you have loved us more than anyone else ever could. We owe you a tremendous debt of gratitude. Please help us to show your love to one another, to everyone around us. Lord, fill us with your love, your grace and your compassion, please. We want to be good witnesses to you and to the gospel, but we can only do this with and through you.
Amen.
