Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
The way we as believers love one another - we're called by God to love one another. This isn't just some sort of add-on to our faith. In fact, as we love one another as Christians, it is one of the primary ways that God reveals Himself to the world around us.
Think about it. No one actually sees God. In fact, you can get into the Old Testament and understand why no one can see God, why someone unholy couldn't stand before a holy God and survive. No one sees God, but one of the closest ways people can get to seeing God is through the love of His people for one another.
Love One Another
That's exactly what John's point is here. As Christians love one another, and there's so much to that. As we read through the New Testament, we might call them the "one anothers." We're called to confess sin to one another. We're called to bear one another's burdens, to serve one another, to encourage one another, to instruct one another, to counsel one another, and on and on.
As we do that as Christians- we're told here - God's love is seen. How does that work? Why is it when we love each other as Christians, that people don't just see that we're loving people, but they actually learn something about the character of God? Let me read you two verses that might be helpful.
Not Our Own Strength
One is in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 10. There Paul writes, "His grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me." Here Paul was doing good things. He was working hard. In fact, he says he was working harder than anyone else around him, but it wasn't him. It was the grace of God that was enabling him. When Christians love one another, it's not because Christians are great. It's because God is great and God has loved them so well that they're enabled to love one another.
Later on in this very chapter, in verse 19 of 1 John chapter 4, John writes, "We love because He first loved us." It is not our love that's great. It's God's love that's great - His love for us. Then we reflect it to the world around us.
Reflecting the Character of God
I think about the moon. I'm sure you know this, but the moon itself has no light of its own. You know, the moon is simply - when you look up in the sky at night, you see it bright - it is reflecting the light of the sun.
Same is true for us as Christians. We don't generate this divine love in and of ourselves. God is love and He is the source of love. He has loved us deeply, which enables us to love others. As we love one another the way God calls us to love one another, that reflects the love of God. It reflects the character of God.
Prayerfully consider the quality of your love for other Christians. Is it patient? Is it kind? Are you bearing the burdens of others? Does your love for others reflect God's own love for you? Maybe you could identify one area of your life and your relationship with others, where you can grow and more fully express God's love for you as you love others.
No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and His love is brought to full expression in us. - 1 John 4:12
