God is love. 1 John 4.8
AGB asked me once, “Dad, when you think about God, what do you think about?”
I quickly answered, “Jesus.”
“Come on dad, I know it’s supposed to be Jesus, but what else?”
“I think about you, AGB. I think about your sister. I think about your mom.”
She laughed her most beautiful laugh, “Dad, that’s not thinking about God, that’s thinking about us.”
“I can’t help but think about you, AGB, when I think about God, and I can’t help but think about God when I think about you. God is love.”
John the Beloved writes to a group of people who were challenged to live as if the Good News was true. There were a lot of other so-called truths in their day. John writes so they will know the truth and have fellowship with one another in the truth.
The context of John’s “God is love” statement is found here.
“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”
When John thinks about God, he thinks about Jesus. When John thinks about Jesus, he thinks about others. John’s focus in this text is on loving others. Because God is love, because He first loved us, he says, let’s love one another – and in this way of life, “His love is made complete in us.”
John knows nothing of a God who is judgmental, condemning, harsh, or vindictive. John knows God in the person of Jesus, and from first-hand experience, He tells the rest of the world the truth. God is love and encourages us to live in His truth and live it out together.
Reflection:
- When you think about God, what do you think about? Why?
- If you think of God as anything other than “God is love,” where do you believe that “untruth” was derived?
- “God is love.” How might you fully live into this truth today?
Pray through the truth of 1 John 1.1-5
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our joy complete.
