The Love Challenge (Part 11)

We are busy looking at love from 1 John 4. I recommend reading the other posts first. 

1 John 4:19: "We love because he first loved us." We know that the Lord first loved us by giving Jesus to pay for our sins, but as I wrote this, another angle to this crossed my heart. I spoke to a young father the other day. We were discussing child rearing, and he told me how he has tried to teach his children certain social behaviours by explaining them, but they were slow to get it. He, however, had a certain habit of saying “bless you”, and before long, he noticed the children copied his habit before they had applied what he tried to teach them. The point he wanted me to get is that the children learn much more by example than they do by being taught.

God first loved us, verse 19 states. He set the example, and if we watch Him love, for instance, by copying Jesus’ actions as recorded in the Bible or by looking out for divine opportunities to love as we see others do, we will be challenged by it.

Without being in the Lord, and Him in us, we as humans are unable to love. We are inherently selfish. Even our good works have selfish motives. But if we are in Him, and He in us, we have His unconditional love working through us to sow wherever we go.

Verse 20 is self-explanatory. I need not say anything about it. 1 John 4:20: Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.

We all need to search our hearts and ask ourselves in which ways we lack love towards our neighbours. We can also ask the Lord to show us the latter. How often do we put our hands up in church singing "I love you, Lord", yet out in the world we act loveless?

The word "hate" in here sounds very strong. You might quickly say "I don't hate my neighbour", but isn't hate just the opposite of love? If I don't love my neighbour as per the standards of 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, what do I do then? "Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." I counted 15 characteristics. How about scoring your daily love out of these 15 characteristics of love?

1 John 4:21: And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

There you have it. The title of this series is The Love Challenge.  Be challenged to love as Jesus did. If all believers do it daily instead of only living for themselves, imagine the difference we'll see in the world.