THURSDAY 16th
1 John 4:7–8, 11-12
‘Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love . . . Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.’
Well, John certainly knew how to get his message across, through repetition! ‘Beloved, let us love one another’. He then makes another important statement, ‘for love is from God’.
In making this statement he is affirming that love and loving others must be a tangible proof that a man or a woman has been born of God.
There are four words used to express love in Scripture, and of the four the love that is from God is the most powerful because it is also an expression of who or what God is in himself, for John says later, ‘God is love’ (v16)
There is that which is known as ‘eros’, which is sensual or romantic love, ‘storge’ which is the love that is found within a family situation, for example between parents and children, brothers and sisters, ‘philia’, as we saw when we were looking at 2 Peter which is the love between believers, those who belong to the family of God, and ‘agape’, which is the love of or love from God which is his immeasurable, incomparable love which he has for mankind, ‘agape’ love is pure love and John says in our text that the measure for how we should love one another is the way in which God has loved us. The standard is high, but John says it is achievable as we learn to abide in God and as we do the love of God is perfected in us. Agape love is demonstrated through our philia love.
On the subject of love, and I know that I am going against the grain of our modern day culture, that any expression of love (using the word in the terms of sexual relationships, as used above ‘eros’) that is not based on what Scripture defines as love is not really love at all, and the many ways that it is being presented today in our society that runs against the grain of and truth of Scripture means we have to conclude it is not love but rather sinful lust, it is that which appeals to the sinful human nature.
Real genuine love can only be expressed and properly discovered within the boundaries that God has set in the fabric of all that he has designed and created, that is through the relationship of a man and a woman within the bond of a monogamous marriage relationship. Yes, I know that culture might say otherwise, I know that governments might legislate otherwise, but the basis of all that we believe and practise as God’s children must be his instruction to mankind as found in the eternal and unalterable Scripture. After all, he is our Creator.