If you are reading this, you are probably on the internet. So, if you are able, get a hold of a Bible, or get on biblegateway.com, or on biblehub.com, or on any other site where you can read the Bible in context, and read all of 1st John, the whole book. It is short, so it won’t take long to read, but it will help you to correctly interpret the following verses. For, verses pulled out of their context can sometimes take on a completely different meaning.
Then, if you are not already there, go to biblehub.com, or
this may also be available on biblegateway.com and I just don’t know about it
yet, but do a search on 1 John 4:7, and then click at the top where it says Interlinear.
Then look for “we should love,” and click on the number 25 above it, and this
will take you to a definition of this word “love.” For this is important that
we understand what this love means, for it is not based in our emotions.
The word “love” in this context means “to prefer, to prefer
to love,” and it “preeminently refers to what God prefers as He is love.” And
then the definition continues by saying that it means to prefer to live through
Christ, embracing God’s will (choosing his choices) and obeying them through
His power. It means to actively be doing what the Lord prefers, for “love” is
always defined by God (source: https://biblehub.com/greek/25.htm).
1 John 4:7-12 ESV
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.”
Love One Another
So, if we are loving one another with this love, we need to
understand that this love comes from God and it is centered in God and in his
divine will and purpose for our lives. It is not human love. It is not based in
the flesh and in fleshly desires nor in the lusts of the flesh. So, it does not
approve of sin, nor does it coddle anyone in their sins, nor does it join them
in their sins so that they will feel that we approve and accept them for who
they are.
Since this love comes from God, and no sin is in him, and he
is pure, righteous, holy, godly, moral, upright, honest, and trustworthy, etc.,
then these qualities should also be reflected in us when we are loving with
this kind of love. So, we will have the mind and purpose of God in our loving
in doing for others what is truly for their best morally and spiritually, as
well as emotionally and physically, as God defines “best.”
I hear many professing Christians today give a much
different picture of “love.” For if we are spreading the truth of the gospel of
our salvation to the people of this world, and if we are calling out sin for
what it is, and if we are calling people to repentance, to leave their lives of
sin behind them, and to follow Jesus Christ in obedience to his commands, and
to surrender their lives to him, and to submit to his Lordship, we are tagged
as “unloving.”
But if professing Christians are refusing to share the truth
of the gospel verbally, with words, so as not to offend the people of the
world, and so the people of the world won’t think they are being judgmental or
unkind, and so the people of the world will feel at home in their gatherings,
then that is often being referred to as being loving and kind, even though it
is a refusal to get the truth to someone to save his or her life from hell.
So, it is all twisted, and this is why, when we read
something like this passage, that we need to have God’s definition of the word “love”
and not the world’s definition of what they call “love.” And Jesus Christ set
the example for us in what the meaning is of love. He gave his whole life up
for us on that cross so that we could be delivered from our slavery to sin, be
reborn of God’s Spirit, and now live according to the Spirit in righteousness.
Born of God, Knows God
So, if we are loving others with this love that is from God,
we will sacrifice our own reputations, and we will be willing to have people hate
us and falsely accuse us and call us names and twist what we are doing by
calling the sharing of the truth of the gospel “evil,” while they call evil
good. For they say it is hateful or self-righteous to talk about sin,
repentance, and obedience to Christ, but it is loving to give people the
freedom to sin.
So, when this says here that “whoever loves has been born of
God and knows God,” it is not saying, “whoever makes people feel good about
themselves and refuses to tell them what will make them feel uncomfortable or
judged,” that they have been born of God. For, that kind of “love” is a false
love, which is not of God, and it is contrary to God’s divine will and purpose
for our lives, which is that we should walk in holiness.
For, the truth of what this is saying is that whoever prefers
what God prefers – holiness, godliness, moral purity, faithfulness, honesty, and
righteousness – they are those who are born of God and who know God. They are
those who are walking according to the Spirit and no longer according to the
flesh, who are preferring to live through Christ, embracing his will, and
choosing his choices, and obeying them in his power and strength and wisdom.
For, what does it say in chapters 1-3 of 1st
John? It says if we say we have fellowship with God while we walk in darkness
(in sinful practices), we lie and do not practice the truth. It says whoever
says, “I know him,” but does not keep (obey) his commandments is a liar, and
the truth is not in him. And it says, “No one who abides in him keeps on
sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.” We need
to believe this.
So, when we read in 1st John 4 that “whoever
loves has been born of God and knows God,” we need to understand the true
meaning of that word “love,” and then we also need to read this in the context
of what is taught in the first 3 chapters. For it isn’t everyone who loves with
a worldly or fleshly love that is based in feelings and in what makes someone
feel good about themselves. It is whoever prefers and obeys God’s will for our
lives.
For
Our Nation
An
Original Work / September 11, 2012
Bombs are bursting. Night is falling.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Trust Him with your life today.
Make Him your Lord and your Savior.
Turn from your sin. Follow Jesus.
He will forgive you of your sin;
Cleanse your heart, made new within.
Men betraying: Our trust fraying.
On our knees to God we’re praying,
Seeking God to give us answers
That are only found in Him.
God is sovereign over all things.
Nothing from His mind escaping.
He has all things under His command,
And will work all for good.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Men deceiving: we’re believing
In our Lord, and interceding
For our nation and its people
To obey their God today.
He is our hope for our future.
For our wounds He offers suture.
He is all we need for this life.
Trust Him with your life today.
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