Category Archives: 1 John

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God, I Want to Love Like Jesus Loved

52 Simple Prayers for 2018

Jesus summed up God’s requirements in two straightforward commands: first, I am to love God with my entire being—my spirit, of course, but also my intellect, my emotions, and my body, then second, I am to love my fellow man just as I would love myself. Now it’s not the first command that you and I struggle with—at least not in principle. It’s the second—love for God is one thing, but loving others is what gives us fits. Yet scripture is clear that we cannot truly love God without fully loving people who were made in God’s image. Likewise, when we are loving people selflessly and sacrificially, then we are authenticating our love for God. This is our calling as Christ-followers: to fully love God by fiercely loving people!

A Simple Prayer To Love Like Jesus Loved:

God, I have declared my love for you countless times, but I have not equally demonstrated the authenticity of that love by sensitively, compassionately and selflessly loving those around me in ways that they would recognize as true love. Forgive my neglect, and help me to allow the kind of love you have for me to be demonstrated toward others. May I be real life proof of your love throughout this day.
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God On Display

Reflect:
I John 3:11-24 & 4:1-21

“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 4:12)

Ask a thousand different people for their concept of God and you will most likely get a thousand different depictions. But the Bible makes it plain that the chief expression of God is love. What does God look like? He looks like love.

Not the sloppy, squishy, anything goes kind of love our world knows. Not the ever-changing love that rises and falls with one’s current emotional state that far too many people today understand love to be. Not the selfish kind of love that loves to the degree that love is requited.

No—real love is an unconditional love; it is a sacrificial love; it is a proactive love; it is a love that seeks out unworthy objects. It is a holy and righteous love; it is a tough love; it is an unchanging love. It is that kind of love that is at the core of God’s nature. It is this love that is the essence of his being.

And though no one has ever seen God, he has made himself visible by the evidence of his love in this world. Wherever you see this kind of love, there, in a very real sense, you see evidence of God. Whether you see evidence of love in the wonder and majesty of nature or in the selflessness and sacrifice of humanity, there God has left his fingerprint of love.

But God is best seen in the lives of his redeemed ones as they live in loving community within the family of God. Whenever you see authentic fellowship, spiritual unity, self-sacrifice, forgiveness, serving—you are seeing love in action; you are seeing God.

When you see God’s people reaching out to a lost world, loving the unlovely, serving the poor, preaching the Good News to the lost, laying down their lives so that hostile people can see the Father, there you have God’s love on display; there you see God.

And God is especially visible when his love is on display in you. When you love with no thought of love in return; when you go out of your way to love; when you love in response to hurtful and hateful actions; when you suffer, but patiently love; when everyone else has given up but you stubbornly love anyway…

When that kind of love in action is displayed in you, there God is seen.

“Our love to Him is the proof and measure of what we know of His love to us.” ~John Newton

Reflect and Apply: Think of practical ways that you can demonstrate the love of God through your life today

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The Circle Of Saving Faith

Reflect:
I John 5:1

“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.”

What makes a Christian a Christian? Is it the fact that a person says so? Should we just take their word for it and leave it at that? A lot of people in our society claim Christianity, but both their language and lifestyle represent a gulf between what they claim and living in full surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Likewise, does going to church make someone a follower of Jesus? Again many people attend worship services on a regular basis, but the trail of evidence as to the Lordship of Jesus in their lives stops at the doors of their church.

How do we know when a person is expressing authentic faith? The Apostle John gives a pretty comprehensive answer to that question in his first letter. He says true Christianity begins with belief: “Every person who believes that Jesus is, in fact, the Messiah, is God-begotten.” (I John 5:1, Message)

Believing is the starting point. That echoes what John taught in his Gospel: “To all who received Jesus, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1:12) But saving belief is not mere intellectual acknowledgement alone. James, the brother of Jesus, would say of that, “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.” (James 2:19)

No, belief that saves is demonstrated in action. John goes on to say, “and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.” (I John 5:2) Saving faith might begin with belief, but it is carried along by love—love for God and love for God’s other children, which Jesus referred to as the first and second great commandments. (Matthew 22:36-40)

Just as it is true of saving belief, saving love has to be more than just an idea. Love is not love until it becomes a verb, and the verb that authenticates Biblical love is obedience:

“By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.” (I John 5:2-3)

Jesus once confronted those who wished to make love only an idea by drawing this line in the sand: “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? …If you love me, you will obey my commands.” (Luke 6:46, John 14:15)

Saving faith begins with belief that it is carried along by love that is demonstrated in obedience. But the kind of saving obedience that Jesus and John were talking about was not simply rote observance of religious ritual. No, they were asking for a deep-seated conviction that led to a relentless choosing of the way of faith over the enticement of this present world. John went on to say, “For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.” (I John 5:4)

And there you have it, the cycle of saving faith: Belief in Jesus that is rooted in love for God and God’s people, which is demonstrated in joyful obedience to God’s commands that expresses itself in a faith that overcomes the world. Where you find that, faith has come full circle and you find someone who is truly a Christian:

“Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (I John 5:1)

Belief…love…obedience…victorious saving faith…one who believes that Jesus is the Messiah of God. That is what makes a Christian a Christian—or so John would say.

“Christianity is not a theory or speculation, but a life; not a philosophy of life, but a living presence.” ~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Reflect and Apply: Is your Christianity a theory…or is it belief in Jesus that is being fleshed out in loving, obedient, overcoming faith? Your honest response to that question is the most important answer you’ll ever give.

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Secure In Your Salvation

Read: I John 5

I write these things to you who believe in the name of Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. (I John 5:13)

God does not want you to be insecure about your salvation.  He takes no pleasure in dangling you over the fires of hell on a rotten stick.  He wants you to know in your knower beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are saved and on your way to heaven.

No earthly father in his right mind would want his children to be insecure about his love for them; that he would protect them and provide for their needs no matter what.  Even when they misbehave, he doesn’t want them to feel as if he is going to kick them out of the house.  A good father doesn’t love his kids one day but not the next.  His love is unconditional, and his children know that. Home is a safe place for them, and that’s why they are secure and well adjusted.

So it is with God.  And so God wants his children to be secure and well-adjusted in the safe love of God. And the Apostle John wrote that this is one of the very reasons why God gave us his Word:  To put into writing for all eternity that God’s children are eternally secure in their salvation.

Whether you feel saved or not, it doesn’t matter.  God’s Word says that when you gave your heart to Jesus, you were saved.

Whether you feel forgiven or not, the Bible says that if you confess your sins, God is faithful and just to forgive you your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness.

Whether you feel the love of God or not, Scripture says that he loves you with an everlasting love.

Whether you feel God’s presence or not, the Word says he will never leave you nor forsake you.

Whether you feel he has heard your prayers or not, God’s Word says you can have confidence that if you ask anything according to his will, he hears you.

Whether you feel that heaven is your home after you die or not, the Bible says that Jesus is your resurrection and your life; that in him, you will never die.

So who are you going to believe: your feelings or God’s Word?

I think I will go with what God’s Word declares to be true.  I hope you will too!

Dear God, thank you for your Word.  It gives me security in my eternity, and nothing can tear that away from me.

“Forgiveness is the remission of sins. For it is by this that what has been lost, and was found, is saved from being lost again.” ~St. Augustine

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What Does God Look Like?

Read: I John 4

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 4:12)

Ask a thousand different people for their concept of God and you most likely will get a thousand different depictions.  But the Bible makes it plain that the chief expression of God is love.  What does God look like?  He looks like love.

Not the sloppy, squishy, anything goes kind of love our world knows.  Not the ever-changing love that rises and falls with one’s current emotional state that far too many people today understand love to be.  Not the selfish kind of love that loves to the degree that love is requited.

No—it is an unconditional love; it is a sacrificial love; it is a proactive love; it is a love that seeks out unworthy objects; it is a love that is not diminished when offended, wronged, manipulated, abused or hated.  It is a holy and righteous love; it is a tough love; it is an unchanging love.  It is that kind of love that is at the core of God’s nature.  It is this love that is the essence of his being.

And though no one has ever seen God, he has made himself visible by the evidence of his love in this world.  Wherever you see this kind of love, there, in a very real sense, you see evidence of God.  Whether you see evidence of love in the wonder and majesty of nature or in the selflessness and sacrifice of humanity, there God has left his fingerprint of love.

Most of all, God is best seen in the lives of his redeemed ones as they live in loving community within the family of God.  Whenever you see authentic fellowship, spiritual unity, self-sacrifice, forgiveness, serving and grace overflowing—you are seeing love in action; you are seeing God.

When you see God’s people reaching out to a lost world, loving the unlovely, serving the poor, preaching the Good News to the lost, laying down their lives so that hostile people can see the Father, there you have God’s love on display; there you see God. And God is especially visible when his love is on display in you.  When you love with no thought of love in return; when you go out of your way to love; when you love in response to hurtful and hateful actions; when you suffer, but patiently love; when everyone else has give up but you stubbornly love anyway…

When you see true love in action, there you see God.

Dear Father, I pray that your love will be on display in me today.

“Our love to Him is the proof and measure of what we know of His love to us.” ~John Newton

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Would You Die For Me?

Read: I John 3

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.” (I John 3:16)

Jesus summed up God’s requirements of us in two straightforward commands:  The first requirement is that I am to love God with my entire being—my spirit, of course, but also my intellect, my emotions, and my body.  The second requirement is that I am to love my fellow man just as I would love myself.

Now it’s not the first command that we struggle with—at least not in principle.  It is quite obvious that we are to love God.  It’s the second that we have difficulty living out.  Love for God is one thing, but loving other people is what gives us fits.

But Jesus was clear, and so was John in his first epistle, that we cannot truly love God without truly loving people who were made in God’s image.  Likewise, when we are loving people authentically from the heart, then we are making our love for God truly practical.

That is our call as Christ-followers:  To love God by loving people!

So then, how do we define the kind of love for people that demonstrates our love for God?  John made it as plain as day:  To lay down our lives for people just as Jesus laid down his life for us.

Now that’s sounds really spiritual, but how do we make that kind of love practical since it is not likely that we will ever be called upon to literally lay down our lives and die for another?  John shows us how in verses 17-18:

“If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has not pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?  Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth.”

True love for God that is demonstrated in authentic love for people is first of all, selfless and sensitive.  It knows that what I have is not for my own gratification, but for the benefit of others.  It knows that not only in principle, but it discerns ways to practice that kind of selfless love in real, everyday life situations.

Second of all, it is a selfless and sensitive love that is motivated by compassion, not just duty.  It sees the need in another and is moved by both the love of God as well as our love for God to do something about that need.

And thirdly, in a way that reiterates the first two points: It is, on the one hand, not just a knowing love, but it is a doing love. And on the other hand, it is not just a doing love, but a knowing love.  In other words, this laying-down-your-life kind of love is based on the character of God revealed theologically in his Word and practically through sacrificial, compassionate and gracious action in our everyday world.

How do we know that we are truly the children of God?  When we love others in this manner.

Father, I have declared my love for you countless times, but perhaps I have not equally demonstrated the authenticity of that love by sensitively, compassionately and selflessly loving those around me in real ways.  Forgive my neglect, and help me today to allow the kind of love you have for me to be demonstrated toward others.  May I be real life proof of your love throughout this day.

“When I have learnt to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now…. When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased.”  ~C.S. Lewis

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What Love!

Read: I John 3

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God. And that is what we are!” (I John 3:1)

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God. And that is what we are!” (I John 3:1)

Imagine that—you are a beloved child of God.  What incredible love the Father has lavished on you that he should make you his very own!  You were once outside the family of God, with no hope and no future.  You were an enemy of God, living in disobedience to his law, the deserving object of his righteous wrath because of your sinful nature.  You were a mess.

But then, God in his love sent his one and only son, Jesus, to rescue you from the helplessness and hopelessness of your sinful condition.  Jesus took upon himself the wrath that you deserved, and he paid the full price for your pardon. He took your sin into his own body—he became sin for you—so that you could become righteous before God.

What love indeed!

Think about this:  You received a full and unconditional pardon from the penalty of death, and thus, you are no longer an object of God’s just judgment.  But there’s more; God’s love didn’t stop there.  You were not only pardoned, you were adopted into God’s very own family.  You who were once an enemy are now brought near to God’s heart and given a place in God’s kingdom.  A permanent place was set for you at the King’s table and you were given a position of purpose in his eternal plan.

What love indeed!

All because of God’s love, you were made a child of God.  What love the Father has bestowed upon one so undeserving as you.  And now you are called his very own.  That is who you are!

What love indeed!

Father, I am your child.  Nothing can change that.  No one can take that away from me. What love indeed, that you should call me your own.  And now, Father, what love I have for you, because you first loved me.

“To use the grace given is the certain way to obtain more grace. To use all the faith you have will bring an increase of faith.” ~John Wesley