09.10.12
1 John 4.7-8 7 Dear friends, let us continue to love one
another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows
God. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. NLT
It’s hard to do, but to accept people just for who they
are is probably about the best way to get along with them. It’s even harder to
do, but to love them for who they are is the best way to relate to them.
Biblical love always puts the interests of others above our own and seeks the
highest good for someone else. That is hard to do especially when the interests
of others may include taking advantage of me.
The Serenity Prayer states, God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage
to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. One thing I
have learned is this: I cannot change people. But 1 John tells me I’m to love
them; I’m to put their interests above my own and I’m to seek their highest
good.
Love is not just romance. Love is not just affection.
Love – Biblical love – is more like one guy in chains telling another guy in
chains how to get free. Not cynicism, but hope. We live in a mostly hopeless
world. People have a hard time seeing past themselves and their circumstance.
And then when someone comes along and “loves” them they tend to take it
suspiciously or they try to take advantage of it. One thing we all have in
common here is: let me just get free from whatever is bothering me. If we see
even a glimmer of a chance of that happening, most folks will try to take it.
But hope is based on truth and though truth seems to be
fleeting to most, when someone comes along and shares their love – their true
love – it is something most people have never seen. We cannot factor out the
Holy Spirit because it is He who empowers such love. That’s why John said in (what
we call) 1 John 4.13: And God has given
us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us. The Spirit of God
empowers love and enables love. True love. The Spirit is who makes the claims
of one in chains to another in chains believable. The Spirit’s presence is what
brings proof to the claims of hope we have. It doesn’t happen any other way.
To love someone the way the Bible spells out love, takes
power that can only come from heaven; it doesn’t come naturally on earth. So
Biblical love stands out and Biblical love loves the unlovely. And John makes
the case that if I’m not loving (verb
tense) in that manner, I need to find out why.
1 John is all about contrasts and comparisons –
separating what is true from what is acceptable. And true love is the hallmark
of the saved. True love looks to give away what the Master has given without
any thought of getting anything back. (Usually the give back is soddened with selfishness
but how are the selfish ever supposed to get free if they are never exposed to
true love?)
Father, may I love with Your love today and live in Your
love today – through Jesus, amen.
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