Good morning
We are discussing love from the perspective of 1 John 4. If you haven't read the previous parts, please do so.
Last time, we ended by saying that the Lord inconvenienced Himself and disrupted His glorious comfort to help man because of love. For the same reason (the love that lives in us through the Holy Spirit), should we be inconvenienced by loving and helping others, which is the topic of verse 11.
1 John 4:11: Dear friends,
since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
of the Lord." Those are empty words, a clanging cymbal. Until love costs us and we inconvenience ourselves to serve others, we have not loved like Jesus did. (John 15:12-14: My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.)
1 John 4:12: No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in and through us.
I thought it was said that if you believe in God's existence, He lives in you. The more charismatic ones believe that if you accept Jesus as your saviour and, through that, become born again, God lives in you. But 1 John 4 sets the standard of salvation higher. Only when you love, through giving of yourself, does God live in you. People cannot see God, but if you love like Jesus loved, people will see God in and through you. Should that not be our aim? When we do certain things in marketing, people will see the value of the product and buy it. When people see the Lord in the way we love, they would want to serve Him.
Jesus said an interesting thing in John 5:28-29: "Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned." Does it say “those who accepted Jesus as saviour will rise to live"? No, it doesn’t. Does it say "those who believe in Jesus will rise to live"? No, it doesn’t. Does it say "those who went to church will rise to live"? No, it doesn’t. Then, who will rise to live? Those who did what is good. Salvation is in the action of love. It’s part of the covenant. Father God did His part through love by giving His Son. Now we need to do our part through love to serve those whom Father God puts in our way.
Have you noticed how Satan makes an effort to prevent you from obeying the Lord? When you want to do something good, an action of love, to the glory of God, all kinds of things happen to discourage and prevent you from being obedient. However, to say the sinner's prayer comes easily. Why would that be? Why doesn't Satan try and stop people from saying the sinner’s prayer? It's putting people on a false foundation. Satan knows God's standards, and if he could get you to believe you're okay, why should he be concerned?
Speaking of which, how many messages do you hear on the requirement of obedience in love and works to be saved? Not many, isn't it? We are told that we are saved by grace and that we can do nothing to earn salvation. All we need to do is be grateful and praise the Lord for His grace. The idea of being saved by grace is preached from Ephesians 2:8-9: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast." There is a difference between doing good works as a way to earn salvation and doing them in obedience to the Lord. The doing of good works as per Ephesians 2:9 above refers to man's attempt to deserve or earn salvation.
Verse 10, however, spells love and good works, in obedience to the Lord, out very clearly: Ephesians 2:10 "For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
What is the purpose of being born again or being created in Christ Jesus? To do good works or to love.
How do we know what good works of love we should do? God went to the trouble of preparing your life's good works for you in
advance.
How would you know what to do? He will present
them to you as opportunities. Colossians 4:5-6: "Be wise in the way you
act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation
be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer
everyone."
To be continued
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