A life Lived outside of Love

 

1John 4: 7-21

A life lived outside of love will leave a child unstable, and often full of fear, always searching for acceptance.  As that person ages, they may be exposed to love, but they are like a dog trying to catch a bus, now what am I going to do with that?  I John 4:7-21 tells us that love is God and a life lived on planet earth outside of Jesus Christ have a big love hole in it. 

The apostle John gives clarity to this in verses 7-9, “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.”  If you believe as I do that all Scripture is God breathed, it is void of error, then it becomes important to see life from heaven’s view.  So verses 7-9 have great encouragement, but also make me come full circle to this big problem; often I am full of self and let the worlds-system control my thinking.

So how was this love manifested, “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.” (1John 4:10)  One of the greatest mistakes is to believe we are seekers of God that is until His Spirit comes to live in our life (1John 4:19).  God in his great love for us atoned for the sin that kept us dead to God by sending His Son to pay in full the price of sin.  My problem is not God abiding in me, verse 15 gives me understanding that when I confessed that Jesus is the Son of God, at that moment God came to live in me and I in Him.  So I come full circle to the question, why am I so easily taken captive by the cares of life?  In verse 18 it is stated; “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts our fear.  For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.”  I am being perfected, but I am not yet perfected, and neither are you, but if we do not love our brothers who we see, how can we love a God who is unseen?  Verse 20 says the following, “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.” 

So when you say God is abiding in me, what do you mean?  When you say His Spirit lives in me what do you mean?  Our understanding of God’s love abiding in us has everything to do with the way we live, the way we love, and with our thought life and the desires of our heart. 

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice