20070105 Bible Study for the Day- 1 John 4:7-5:3

Context for 1 John 4:7-5:3

God’s command for His children is simple: To love Him with all our heart, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Everything command contained in the New Testament revolves around these two simple things.

1 John 4:7-5:3

What is this love that John- really every writer of the New Testament because of Jesus Himself- constantly refers to? In our modern society and sometimes ambiguous understanding of our own language, we fail to understand what the love Jesus and John talk about.

There are many passages of scripture that the Bible provides trying to explain this love to us, but two of them stand out as direct expositions on the subject. First is 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a:

“Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails…”

And second is John 15:12-14:

“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you.”

In these two passages, we see the nature of the love that John is talking about. Indeed, it is a love that we comprehend, even a love that we want others to have for us. The problem is having that love for others.

In the end, our faith moves us to a selfless devotion for our God and our fellow man. In faith, we cast aside all worldly concerns- from where our next meal will come from to what’s next on American Idol– in favor of the concerns of spreading the Gospel and caring for our fellow man.

This kind of love is the measure of our faith. It is the same measure that Jesus promised in the Parable of the Talents and that Jesus applied to the thief on the cross, and it is the measure that we must use everyday in our struggle toward Heaven.

DLH