Begin with two minutes of stillness and silence before God.

We’re back today with another message from John. This time his message is very, very clear: God is love. As I was reading this passage, it struck me just how many times I read the word love. In the NIV, I think I counted 26 times in 15 verses. It seems like John wants to be sure we really understand, right? 

So, what does it even mean when we say that God is love? That’s another one of those things I’ve said and heard without maybe even fully understanding. To put it simply, everything God does, in one way or another, expresses His love. That sounds great until we think about the keyword, “everything.” That means that even the difficult times and trials we face are also an expression of God’s love for us.  

It also helps to understand that the word love in this passage is specifically the Greek word “agape”. Agape love is a self-giving love that gives without demand and does not expect repayment. That’s beautiful, isn’t it? So why do we constantly strive to prove to God that we’re worthy of His love? Why do we work so hard to achieve something that He’s willing to give without an expectation of repayment?  

John focuses on this concept of love because if we say that God is love and we say that we are followers of God, we must be able to love each other with an agape love. This type of love is not just magically in us when we are born. We are naturally selfish instead of self-giving. We naturally demand our own way instead of giving to others. We give with the expectation of getting something back. When we become followers of Jesus and truly know God though, we are given access to agape love. It won’t always come easily – there’s still a war between our flesh and the Spirit – but it should begin to come more easily than before.  

Verse 8 tells us that anyone who does not love (agape) does not know (ginosko) God. The Greek word ginosko means knowledge that comes from experience. If you cannot confidently say that there is a real love for God’s people, then your claim to know and experience God cannot be true. Remember that in John 3:16 we learned that God’s people meant all the people in all the world. 

Today’s challenge is to think and pray about who you love. It’s easy to love your family. It’s easy to love your friends. It’s maybe even easy to love your community, state, and country. Can you truly say you love the people around the world though? Pray and ask God to help you see everyone the way that He sees them. Then ask Him to help you understand how to love people the way that He loves people.

Take two minutes to reflect in silence.

Reflection:

• Do you find it easy to love people who are different than you?
• Do you tend to spend more time loving people who look, sound, and believe like you?
• What source are you going to in order to love other people well?
• Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for the way You love me. You love us as I am and offer me a life where I get to experience that love daily! God, fill me with Your love so that I can love others well. Help me see the people You want me to show Your love to. In Jesus' name, Amen.