Loving Because He First Loved
1 John 4:11–16a
Beloved, if God loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we remain in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God. We know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.
World English Bible
Buried in the middle of this passage is a sentence that should stop us cold: "No one has seen God at any time." Strange thing for John to write. He's spent a whole letter telling us to know God, abide in God, love God. Now he admits the obvious problem: God is invisible. No one has ever caught a glimpse of Him. So how does an unseen God become believable in a seeing world?
John's answer is breathtaking: "If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love has been perfected in us." The invisible God becomes visible in the love of His people. Once, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and people saw His glory. Now, in a derivative but very real way, the seeing continues: through a meal delivered, a grudge released, a lonely person remembered, a church that actually treats one another like family. Your love for another believer may be the closest thing to a sighting of God that someone gets this week.
Notice the logic John starts with: "if God loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another." He does not say we ought to love God back (true, but not his point here). The love God poured down on us is meant to flow sideways. A reservoir that only receives becomes a swamp. And notice what makes this possible: "he has given us of his Spirit." This is not moral self-improvement. The Spirit takes the love of God (demonstrated at the cross, where the Father "sent the Son as the Savior of the world") and makes it operational in ordinary people.
John ends with mutual indwelling: whoever confesses Jesus as the Son of God, "God remains in him, and he in God." Remain is a homing word. It means to settle in, to make your dwelling. We are not commanded to generate love but to live inside it, to know and believe "the love which God has for us", until loving others stops being a project and starts being an address.
Reflect
- Who in my life might "see God" only through the way I treat them this week, and what are they actually seeing?
- Has God's love been flowing through me to others, or has it pooled and gone stagnant somewhere in my heart?
- Do I relate to love as a duty I generate or as a home I live in? What would it mean to "remain" in God's love today?
Pray
Thank God that He did not stay invisible, that He sent His Son as Savior of the world and has given us His Spirit. Ask Him to perfect His love in you by giving you one concrete act of love toward a specific person today. Pray that your home, your church, and your friendships would become places where unseen love becomes seeable.