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21st January 2025
TuesdayReflection
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'Nate Holdridge'
'pastors Calvary Monterey, a wonderful
church in Northern California'
"We love because He first loved us"
'1 John 4 v19'
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God's Love Comes to Us
First, we must recognize all our love is a response to His.
So God's love comes first to us before it goes anywhere else.
He is the great initiator.
We were rebels, running from God, and dead in our sins (Ephesians 2:1-4).
We did not care for Him. We were spiritually deceased.
But in our deadness, God's love broke through.
He shattered chains and broke through lies to shout His love for us.
And His love is so wonderfully radical and good.
God's love and forgiveness can pardon and restore any and every kind of sin or wrongdoing.
It doesn't matter who you are or what you've done.
It doesn't matter if you've deliberately oppressed or even murdered people, or how much you've abused yourself.
The younger brother knew that in his father's house there was abundant "food to spare," but he also discovered that there was grace to spare.
There is no evil that the father's love cannot pardon and cover, there is no sin that is a match for his grace. --
Timothy Keller, (The Prodigal God)
Amazing. God's love is first.
But notice how God's love works.
It comes to us first, but then it flows back from us to Him.
We respond to His love by loving Him.
John said it this way: We love because He first loved us.
What is our response to His love? We love.
The love John has in mind is our love for God.
We will see this in the next verse.
So this is how God's love works. First, it flows from Him to us.
Then, we respond to His love by loving Him.
But what happens next? Let's read on:
God's Love Flows Through Us
If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
1 John 4 v 20-21
To Others
John is a straight shooter.
He says the person who hates his brother while saying "I love God" is actually a liar.
John wanted a pure Christianity.
All through his letter, he refers to three terrible lies;
one is moral (disobedience to God),
one is doctrinal (saying Jesus didn't come in the flesh),
and one is social (hatred for others).
When John spoke of hatred, he meant an absence of love.
And this is how God's love works.
After experiencing God, who is love, we then turn and love others.
It is the inevitable response to God's love.
In John's mind, one cannot love the invisible God without loving God's visible people.
They are right there, ready to be loved. We must extend ourselves to them!
But there is a myth we often believe.
We think we can love God without loving His people.
John is busting that myth with this passage.
A person who refuses to love others clearly hasn't interacted with God.
A Christianity which would use the vertical preoccupation as a means to escape from its responsibility for and in the common life of man is a denial of the incarnation, of God's love for the world manifested in Christ. --
John Stott, Christian Mission in the Modern World.
Yes. Love for God goes hand in hand with love for others, especially our spiritual siblings.
We must remember John's point here.
Some forms of theology emphasize people and forget about God, while others highlight God and look down on others.
But good theology should cause us to love God and people who are made in His image.
This is part of the reason sins such as abortion and racism are so terrible in God's sight.
He hates it when we take advantage of others who are made in His likeness.
Instead, when God's love fills your life, you should love all people.
May it be so in us.
><(((°>
This is an edited version.
The full article and Bible references are avaiable on request
'Nate Holdridge'
I love God. I love his word. I love the gospel.
And I like to talk and write about it everywhere I can.
Each week throughout 2021, I will share a Bible study blog post taking us through the letter of 1 John.
Only five chapters long, this brief book is worthy of our consideration.
Whether you drop in for one post or many, I pray that you enjoy them.
Nate Holdridge pastors Calvary Monterey, a wonderful church in Northern California, a church with a heart for the fame of Jesus Christ.
A Bible teacher, Nate invests his time and energy into the communication of scripture
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