Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. I John 4:7, 12
The topic of relationships is still on my mind because of the time I’ve spent studying I John 4. There is so much rich, deep, and timeless theology in this chapter that one brief devotional couldn’t possibly do it justice. I encourage you to take a look at I John 4 on your own beyond what I say in this devotional. Sit in it. Think about what you read, and then pray over the emotions it makes you feel.
John wants us to wrestle a bit, I believe, because he wants us to fully trust God’s authentic, faithful, and constant love. It is the energy on which our lives and relationships thrive.
A theologian by the name of C.H. Dodd has commented that love is triangular. It flows from God to us, through us to others, and then returns to God. This aligns with the point John is making when he says that if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. Earlier, in verse 8, he gives us a reliable test to use on our hearts. Anyone who doesn’t love doesn’t know God. This relates directly to the statement he makes about abiding in God in verse 12.
If we say we love God, then our lives will hold love like a pool holds water. This love will then naturally spill out onto others. If we say we love people, then our relationships will act as a window into our attitudes toward God. John is saying that one doesn’t exist without the other. If we love God, we’ll share his love with others. And if we love others, we do it out of the reservoir our relationship with God has created within us.
These are two sides to the triangle. The third one is about returning love to God. When we live in Christian community giving, serving, and showing compassion, then love is returned to God. This may be what John means when he says that God’s love is made complete in us. He extends love to us. We give it to others. Together we give it back to God.
It’s the shape of perfect love.
Loving in community has an additional aspect. When we love, God is seen. He is invisible until his family of sons and daughters love each other. When we let his love flow through us, and we serve one another in sacrificial ways, God is seen. This is where he lives. This is how the outside world recognizes him. His presence moves and dances in the actions of a loving Christian community.
How do we grow this capacity to love in our hearts? John suggests that we must stay connected to God. Find ways to consistently listen to his word, to study it, or to read it for yourself.
Be born of God by accepting Jesus Christ into your heart as your Lord and Savior. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the son of God, God lives in them and they in God (verse 15).
Practice loving others. We won’t get it right every time. People will find ways, sometimes unintentional ones, to insult us or offend us. But we must forgive and keep moving forward. Our goal is to make God visible and to continue expressing our love to him.
This verse from the hymn, “The Love of God” gives me such great comfort to know how endless and yet how strong is God’s love.
Could we with ink the ocean fill
And were the sky of parchment made
Were every stalk on earth a quill
And every man a scribe by trade.
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole
Though stretched from sky to sky.
The love of God, how rich and pure
How measureless and strong.
It shall forevermore endure
The saints and angels’ song.
