Because relationships matter most of all #11: still more on love!

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgement: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister. John 4:7-21

Today, John circles back around to the subject of love. He’s not finished with that yet. He has one key belief – the incarnation of Jesus – and one key action – love – to convey in this letter and he WILL get his point across. From where he’s standing, these are the most important things to write the the early believers about. Without that belief and that action, then their faith is meaningless.

It’s this passage that brings us the bold statement: GOD IS LOVE. Where God is, there is love. Where love is, there is God. The two are interchangeable. Of course, we’re talking about love in its purest, truest sense – there can be no fear in the relationship, no dominance, no abuse, no exploitation, no manipulation. We know when we see pure unconditional love in others and maybe we have been fortunate to experience it for ourselves. That’s what he’s talking about – when we are loved or love others as God loves us. Humans are not perfect, so our love is not perfect, but our love can give us a glimpse of God at work in the world. It is love that engenders forgiveness, patience, compassion and all that is good in the world. This is not love as the world portrays, but this perfect love is out there in the most surprising of places and relationships if we open our eyes, lay aside our preconceptions and celebrate it where we find it.

All love (in its truest sense – there’s plenty of warped, tainted, selfish love out there) comes from God.

God is love.

It is not up to us to judge the love that other people have for one another – regardless of gender, age, religion, race. Where there is love, there is God. Anyone who knows this love and loves in this way knows God. God is to be found in the centre of that love.

Jesus is the absolute expression of God’s love in action. You know John 3:16 – ‘For God so loved the world that He sent His one and only son…’ And while on earth, Jesus showed us what love in action looks like. And now it is up to us to follow his example.

Be like Jesus. Love one another. When it doesn’t come naturally, work on it, for it is the most important thing you will ever do.

We can rely on God’s love and we can trust Him to fill us with His love so that it can flow out from us to everyone we meet. Many of our interactions are based on fear, aren’t they? The fear of being rejected, of causing offence, of people judging us, of not being good enough. Imagine relationships where we could relax into being ourselves with no such fear.

Let’s celebrate today the relationships we already have like that and work on creating some more. Let’s create a loving space where others feel that kind of love and acceptance from us.