Sunday, December 20, 2015

Here is what love looks like...

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.
By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:7-19 ESV)
We often refer to I Corinthians 13 as the Love Chapter.  I would contend that this chapter is every bit as much so.  John says: "Here is love - Look at what Christ did, when He did it, why He did it. We see here the love of the Father and the Son.  We also see the love of the Spirit, as He is willing to come into the loves of yet imperfect believers.  The real question is: what kind of love do we see in us? All of the above demonstrations of the love of God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - they would imply that we would demonstrate similar love toward the rest of the Family. As we celebrate the first coming of Christ, let us celebrate it as Love come down, Sent, and Staying around, in us.

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