Many people spend their lives, as the song goes, "Lookin' for
love in all the wrong places." So, how do we find real, lasting love?
Love comes from God
Dear friends,
let us love one another, for love comes from God (1 John 4:7a NIV).
Many people think
that God is only interested in rules. But God is all about love. Jesus,
God the Son, reminds us of the most important "rule":
"Love
the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all
your mind." This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second
is like it: "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:37-39).
"Okay,"
we say. "That sounds good." But we seem powerless to love like
that.
Those who
say, "I love God," and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars;
for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot
love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this:
those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also (1 John
4:20-21 NRSV).
The power to 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 (1 John 4:7b-10).
Anything that
we have done that is not loving separates us from a loving God. We don't
have to murder or commit armed robbery to "sin." Sin is simply
breaking God's commandment to fully love Him and others.
If we claim
to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us
(1 John 1:8).
But His only
Son, Jesus Christ, died and rose again to "atone" for our unloving
behavior (1 John 2:1-2). Atone means to make "at-one." When we
confess our lack of love (sin) and believe that Christ has died and risen
for our sin, we are forgiven and are "at one" with God and His
love (1 John 1:9).
God abides in
those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God (1
John 4:15).
The power to love unselfishly comes from God
Love from God
is not earned—it is a free gift—but it is also learned.
No one has
ever seen God; but if we love each other, God lives in us and his love
is made complete in us (1 John 4:12).
We get to know
God and His love better through reading his love letter (the Bible), talking
to Him (prayer), and being with those who also love Him (the church). And
the better we know God, the easier it is for us to obey his commandment
to love Him and others.
This is love
for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for
everyone born of God has overcome the world [of hate] (1 John 5:3).
If you'd like
to know more about God and His great love, please feel free to e-mail me
at jim@jameswatkins.com
Copyright © 1990 James N. Watkins. All rights reserved.
comments
I wrote to you because I question the way I interpret love. I felt I've been a loving person all my life until recently. Today, when I looked up love on the Internet and found your Web page, it did something to me. In all honesty, when I first saw it I said, "Oh, this is some Bible thing; people trying to get you to believe in God." I didn't want to look at it, not because I wasn't interested, but because I am bitter. I started reading it with this attitude of sarcasm. The funny thing was, though, for some reason I kept reading it through the end. Even if I had thoughts of clicking out of that screen, my hands were frozen, like God sitting me at a table saying, "Here's your lesson, now learn it!" It was very strange. [Name withheld] November 5, 1998
It sounds as if God is trying to get your attention and remind you how much He loves you.
How do you go from being a hateful person to opening up to God and expecting Him to make everything okay? [Name withheld]
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