7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
1John 4:7–12 (NIV)
Commentary
We constantly crave recognition and love, but worldly love is often conditional and easily corrupted. The anxiety of being unloved and the spiritual struggle of not knowing how to love leave us exhausted. Without knowing the source of true love, we often feel empty within superficial and temporary relationships.
The Apostle John proclaims that "love comes from God" and that "whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love" (vv. 7-8). This divine love was revealed not through our love for Him, but through His love for us—sending His only Son as an atoning sacrifice (v. 10). It is through this love that we have been given life.
Today, place the source of your love in God. Remember that it is not about how much you are loving others, but about how much you are already loved by Him. When you trust the fundamental truth that "God is love," you gain an unshakable spiritual stability that does not depend on the world's conditional approval. Only through this "preceding love" can we achieve the spiritual maturity to love one another and abide in God.
Difficult Words
- God is Love:This declaration proclaims that the source and essence of love reside in God. His love is not a fleeting emotion but an attribute that represents His very existence.
- Atoning Sacrifice (Propitiation):Refers to Jesus Christ, the only Son whom God sent to sacrifice Himself to restore the peace in our relationship with God, which was severed by sin. This is the evidence that God loved us first.
My Meditation Record
1
How does the Apostle John define the source of love, and what was the specific way God's love was revealed to us? (Refer to vv. 8-10)
2
Are you currently failing to trust the fundamental truth that God is love, trying instead to validate your existence through human love or conditional recognition? Why is it "fitting" for us to love one another?
3
Meditating on the fact that "it is not that we loved God, but that He loved us," identify one person who is most difficult for you to love. Relying on God's love, perform one small act of kindness toward them today.