Monday, September 16, 2024
This is how we have come to know love: He laid down his life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.mIf anyone has this world’s goods and sees a fellow believer in need but withholds compassion from him—how does God’s love reside in him? Little children, let us not love in word or speech, but in action and in truth. This is how we will know that we belong to the truth and will reassure our hearts before him1 John 3:16-19
After the message: Read 1John 3:11-18. What is the message that John’s readers had heard from the beginning? What is the state of those who do not love? How do we know love? How should we live a life of love?
Living Authentically in Love
John was one of the twelve disciples that Jesus called to follow Him. He spent time with Jesus, learning how to be a disciple. He got to watch Jesus and learn to live and love like Him first hand. John wrote these letters (1,2, and 3 John) to the church to encourage the believers after a group of false teachers came and caused confusion and dissention in the congregation. The old testament was not complete at this time so many churches and believers were caught up in the false teaching.
John had been speaking about the command to love and reminding them of where they heard about it in the first place. The old command is the word you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new command, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. The one who says he is in the light but hates his brother or sister is in the darkness until now.The one who loves his brother or sister remains in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But the one who hates his brother or sister is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and doesn’t know where he’s going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. 1 John 2:7-11
They already knew about the command to love so they should be getting the picture that love is a central theme in living for Jesus. Those who do not love, but instead hate, cannot know God because God is love. As believers, when we love others, we love them with a pure love that comes from God. Those who do not love, walk in darkness. When we love, we walk in light. If we have hate in our hearts we cannot walk in the light.
For believers, love for others is proof of the love of God in us. Non believers can love of course, but it is not with the pure love that comes from God. If we say we are a Christian and this love is not evident in our lives, people will notice because Jesus said that loving others would be the way the world would know that we are His disciples - if we love one another. “I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35
We know love because Jesus loves us with His boundless, never ending, love, grace, and mercy. We are filled with this love and so should pour it out into the lives of those around us.
