Love

Love

John 3:16-17 NLT 

“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. "

Day 219: The love test

1 John 4:7-8 NLT

Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

        I believe the greatest expectation in reading a devotion about love starts with God’s love for us. Which is not a bad place to start, but for us, we are going to start off in a different place. One of the things our world as a whole is fixated on is love. Love for a good meal. Love for a good show. Love for a good experience. Love for a good friendship. Love for a good cup of coffee. Love for a good relationship. Love for the best slice of pizza. Love for pretty much everything under the sun. We have rating systems to help us determine something we are going to love and something that won’t let us down. Overall, we are in love with everything, but are we in love with the right things?

         One of the things I love about this passage is how it is teaching us how to discern if someone is teaching us falsely. That is the root of this verse, it is the testing verse of how we are to know if someone truly comes from God, it is by their love for others. Check out the first 6 verses:

1 John 4:1-6 NLT

Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here.

But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. Those people belong to this world, so they speak from the world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them. But we belong to God, and those who know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us. That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of deception.

Now, after reading that, think about the list of things we love from above, it is hard for us to not feel like we belong to this world. I know for me, I must monitor my own speech and actions, because I would be found guilty of too much worldliness…it is a sin I willingly confess, and I am working on with Jesus. This conviction is covered by grace, but what do I want to continually put on? Love for others! Loving others is my aim, and many times I miss the mark.

         So, thinking about God’s word this morning, the test of those that would teach us is in their love for others. How do you know if you can trust the teaching that God has given through 359˚ of beauty? Well, the first thing is that 359˚ of beauty is about God first, always. It is about His sovereign beauty. It is easy to fall in love with a Creator that radiates beauty in all things.

         Often, we are drawn to the most beautiful of things, for they also come from God. 359˚ of beauty is also about sharing God’s beauty in love with each other. We are to share and point each other back to Jesus Christ in all things. Giving thanks in all things and loving each other in all things is the power of living the 359˚ of beauty life. You choose to love others and constantly point them back to Jesus in all ways, praising Him for the beauty in everything. Does this pass the love test? Well- continue reading the scriptures and determine for yourself, because you should only consider God’s words as reliable, not what is written in a devotional.

Dear Reliable God,

         Thank You for Your word this morning and providing us tests for discerning Your followers. Father, may Your love abound in us to where we outpour love on others. Given the nature of all that is going on in our lives today, Jesus, please help us demonstrate our love for others by seeing the beauty that surrounds every trial, every situation, and every moment of the day. May we grant others compassion, mercy, and grace like you have lavished on us through Your love for us and allow us to see all Your creation through a lens of love and grace only You can provide. We love You Lord Jesus. In Christ’s name we pray, amen.

Day 220: Perfect Love

1 John 4:16-19 NLT

We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. We love each other because he loved us first.

1 John 4:16-19 NASB

We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, we also are in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us.

         Perfect love... The only source of perfect love is through Jesus Christ, for Christ Jesus, and by Jesus Christ. Otherwise, we practice our own versions of what we think love should be. We have multiple influences pulling for our attention and that is before we get to our own desires. We do not need additional distractions taking away from our attention when all we really want is God’s perfect love to begin with. Both of these translations of scriptures keep the same context but there are some subtle differences that make interpretation and perspectives shift if we remain open to the ideas as presented in the scripture.

         Take for instance in the NLT it says, “our love grows more perfect” whereas the NASB states it like, “love is perfected with us.” While this may not seem like much of a difference the concept of love growing perfect can be considered flawed in the sense that it grows into perfection. God’s love is perfect from beginning to end. It is not something that needs to grow. Yes, but the argument is that love grows in us and is not perfect within us… which is why the NASB suggest that love is perfected with us in the sense that it is proved perfect, because love serves as the proof of God’s existence in our lives. This is different from love growing- it is already perfect, but it is proved perfect because it has had its opportunity to be demonstrated with us in our belief of God.

         Consider these thoughts, we know that the Holy Spirit is God and that we have received the gift of the Holy Spirit to help guide us in our lives. This Holy Spirit is filled with God’s perfect love and leads us to be fearless in the sense of our security with Jesus Christ. This sense of security is what grows within us as we grow in the knowledge and wisdom of God. In a sense this is love growing, but it is more of our understanding, transformation, and renewal growing in God, whereas God is perfect already. This is why we can embrace death as life in Jesus Christ for that is what He has promised in His perfect love. It is truly freeing when our understanding reaches the fullness of what scripture teaches us. While we do not deserve such a gift due to our own sin nature, love is perfectly given and fully complete in God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. It is our acceptance and knowledge of it that grows within us.

         When reading and studying scripture, it becomes increasingly important for us to review multiple sources of information and not allow ourselves to get caught up thinking one way. That would be counter to the love we have encountered with Jesus. We need to seek understanding that everything is based out of grace, which is the act of love. It is because God loved us that grace has been extended to us through the work of Jesus Christ alone!

Dear Perfect Love,

         Thank You for Your perfect love. While we do not fully understand it, we receive the benefits of it through Your grace and mercy. We are totally undeserving of it, but You have granted it anyways if we choose to believe in You Jesus. Thank You for making is so simple and that it has nothing to do with our actions. We are thankful You see through all our attempts to find love that only You can provide. Jesus, we know You made all things in You, through You, and for You. Love is absolutely no different and You demonstrate it to us all the time. May we embody Your love and love others and ourselves well today. Thank You Jesus for being an awesome God. Praise be to Jesus for the gifts granted to us in the Holy Spirit, our perfect source of love. In Christ Jesus’s authority we pray, amen.