Friday - Keep Facing the Son

"Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us." — 1 John 4:11–12

God's love was never meant to stop with us. It was meant to flow through us.

Because God loves us, we are to love one another. That sounds simple enough — until you notice what kind of love John is talking about. Both times he uses the word love in verse 11, it's the same Greek word: agape. God's unconditional, unending, supernatural love. That's the love we're called to give.

Jesus said it this way:

"A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." — John 13:34

As I have loved you. That's where it gets hard. I'm all for experiencing unconditional love. It's a whole other ball game to love others that same way.

So how do we do it?

It goes back to one word — reflection.

Look at how John starts verse 11: "if God so loved us." He isn't questioning whether God loves us. He's pointing back to everything he just said. In other words, "Since God loves us like this — stop and think about it — we ought to love one another."

John calls for reflection. And reflection leads to demonstration. When you reflect on God's love for you, you begin to reflect that love onto others.

Think about the moon.

The moon doesn't produce any light of its own. Every bit of light it gives off is reflected from the sun. The moon's job isn't to make light. Its job is to stay facing the sun.

The same is true for us. We can't produce agape love on our own. Our job is to stay facing the Son.

We don't love others by trying harder. We love others by looking longer. The longer we look at Jesus, the more His love shines through us. The more you look at His love, the more you'll look like His love.

"Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith…" — Hebrews 12:2

They can see us.

"No man hath seen God at any time." Nobody has ever seen God. But they can see us.

When John says God's love is "perfected in us," he means it accomplishes its purpose in us when the love we've received becomes the love we give. When we love like Jesus, people get a glimpse of Him.

Henry Drummond wrote a little book about love and titled it The Greatest Thing in the World. He was right. There is nothing greater than the love of God — and nothing more important for a Christian to learn than how to love.

Here's my challenge for you:

Reflect on how much God loves you.
Identify that one person you struggle to love.
Show them the love God has shown you.
It won't be easy. But the Bible says, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Philippians 4:13).

All things includes hard things.