This is the answer to every excuse on our part that says, “I just can’t love that person.” John says, “If God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other.”
If we have experienced “this” love, if we have been to the cross and felt the overwhelming cleansing of God’s love for us, despite the antagonism and hatefulness we have shown Him and despite our loving our own way and wanting to do what we like; if we have felt the cleansing grace of God wiping that all out without any recriminations or calling up of the past, then, “we certainly ought to love each other”—we owe it.
Absent the presence of the Holy Spirit, we can’t love each other like this. Instead, we offer up some shabby, shoddy, sleazy imitation of love that treats others kindly to their faces and cuts them to death behind their back. That is not love.
Neither is merely tolerating others for a time. Unless we are indwelled by the Holy Spirit, we cannot love. But if we yield to the Spirit, we can love like this, and we ought to.
Verse 12 declares a great and daring concept: It recognizes that God is invisible, and no person has ever seen God. Where is He made visible? John says, “If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is made complete.” That is, His love reaches its zenith “in us.” The indwelling God becomes visible only when we manifest love one to another.
Jesus asks, “If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that (Matthew 5:47).” When we start being nice to those who are nasty to us, when we start returning good for evil, when we start being patient, tender, thoughtful, and considerate of those who are stubborn, obstinate, and selfish, then people get the sense that God’s love prevails.
(We invite your comments. Feel free to share this devotion with your friends and invite them to subscribe by forwarding their email address to the Pastor at: fredjeffsmith@gmail.com.)
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