1 John 4 : 7-10: A Meditation
“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 us. (1 John 4 : 7-10)
What is love? Love is at the very heart of God himself! This short passage from 1 John spells out that message very clearly. It begins by exhorting us to love one another. What an easy and casual word love often seems to many in today’s world. We all have the capacity to love and to receive love. Yet to show love to one another is to somehow show them something of God, to give them a glimpse of the very essence of who God is. Love is not something that can simply be reduced to “nice feelings”, it is something that goes so much deeper than that. This passage echoes John 3:16 which speaks of God’s sacrificial love for all, and holds out the promise of abiding within his love for ever.
We are urged to love within the context of our community, whether that community is one of family, church, work....wherever we may find ourselves. It is not something that we can do by ourselves in our own spiritual bubble. It is something that requires us to develop a relationship with others in order to flourish and grow. The depth of love that God has for us is the perfect model by which we can aspire to love others as he has loved us. Out of our own experience of God’s love for us we can reflect that love back to God and to others.....a sort of mirror if you like.
John reminds us that it is through God reaching out to us in love, and firmly rooting the sacrifice of Jesus as something borne out of that love. The whole idea of the atonement by which we are able to be reconciled to God through Jesus comes purely out of his love for us. It is God reaching out to us rather than us reaching out to God that is key here. It is only through his love that we are able to truly know what it is to live. When we are able to reach out to others in love they may see something of God in us.
It is useful at this time of Lent as we prepare to journey with Christ through the events of Holy Week to focus not only upon self-denial, but also on love. Our response to the self-giving love of Jesus upon the cross ideally should be a reflection of that love. When we strive to be more like Christ in our attitude towards others, we reflect in our own lives the love that God first showed towards us. It is by recognising the source of that love and by allowing ourselves to be used by God to share that love with others that we are able to more fully enter into the love and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ.
AMEN
