S - 1 John 4:7-21 (NASB)
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is [a]born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 By this the love of God was manifested [b]in us, that God has sent His [c]only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 14 We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has [d]for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear [e]involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. 19 We love, because He first loved us. 20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.
O - I think my devotions have been surrounded by this thought that John is communicating to the early church. He first starts exhorting us to love one another but then quickly moves into a complete discussion of what love is, where it comes from, and what it looks like (and doesn't look like) and thus... Love is God. Love is from God and comes from knowing God. Love has been shown to us by God the Father by sending His only son to die for our sins. God doesn't love us because we loved Him, but rather love originates from Him. God's love is perfected in us when we abide in God and love one another. We abide in God when we confess Jesus as our Lord and Savior. The presence of fear is the absence of love, we can have both love and fear, both those that fear have not been perfected in love.
A - The application for me is to strive to be perfect in God's love, to learn to love others how God loves me. I am to allow the peace of God and the Holy Spirit's dwelling in me to cast out all fear and worry. Each day I am to seek God and abide in Him so that His love may be in me and flow out of me to others.
P - Dear heavenly Father, thank you for todays lesson, may it be sealed to my heart. I pray Lord that you would abide in me, and show me how to love like you love. I pray Lord that you cast out any spirit of fear in my life and grant me peace so that I may love others. I pray all this in Jesus name, Amen
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