We Ought Also To Love
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.”
I John 4:7-12
"Heaven is a world of love." That is the thesis of Jonathan Edwards great treatise on 1 Corinthians 13:8-10. That chapter in 1 Corinthians is often regarded as the most profound treatment of love in all of scripture; and for good reason, for in it Paul goes to great lengths to declare and describe the greatness of divine love. But although Edwards is writing from 1 Corinthians 13 in his treatise, he also points us to the passage from I John that we started with. Edwards writes, "the God of love Himself dwells in heaven. Heaven is the palace or presence-chamber of the high and holy One, Whose name is love, and Who is both the cause and source of all holy love."*
If we're not diligent, we can easily begin to view love, even in the truest sense, as something of general virtue. Something that can be had, experienced, and given by everyone in general. But in I John 4, we find the great reminder (and echo Edwards' recounting of it) that true love, holy love, is from God alone. God who is Himself love. God who alone can define and deliver true love. To put it bluntly, you have never experienced love in the truest sense unless you have been a recipient of God's love; and unless you have first received, you cannot hope to give it out. God's love was "made manifest" in the redemption of sinful men accomplished by Christ on the Cross. This quintessential expression of love cannot be toppled as the ultimate and truest delineation of love that human intellect can comprehend.
Have you received God's love? It comes by way of the cross of Christ. It is experienced in the forgiveness only He can offer. I acknowledge that if you're reading this, you are probably quite aware of God's love. You would probably be numbered among those who have received the gift. So to you and I, the horizontal application of it is simple: Does God's love accompany us in our dealings with others? John is so bold as to declare that our very union with God Himself is evidenced in the way in which we pass his love on to others. "Anyone who does not love does not know God" may seem like a broad brush, perhaps a bit harsh even; yet it is not original with John. He had heard this before, and he records Jesus as saying "By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another." (John 13:35) Clearly the evidence of holy love, delivered by God himself to us and delineated by us to others, is a miraculous gift and a critical part of the Christian experience.
We ought also to love one another - that call seems so trite and commonplace, we hardly pay attention when we hear it. Yet how soon do we neglect that call because of disagreements or annoyances? How soon do we neglect that call in private when we are not in the presence of the person who is troublesome to us? How soon do we neglect that call when it is merely inconvenient, or messy, or would interrupt our plans? How soon do we neglect that call when our brother or sister doesn't share our political views? How soon do we neglect that call when we read a frustrating social media post?
You see, this divine love, this heavenly love delivered by God is a love that encompasses the entirety of our beings. His redeeming love reached to us in a deep state of unworthiness. And though we cannot save a soul, we can exemplify Christ through the fruit of the Spirit, the first of which is love. The "while we were still sinners" love of Jesus translates over to our dealings with others as a "while they still annoy us us" love. (Did you just roll your eyes? be honest.) If heaven is filled with God's perfect love, why would we despise it now? To Quote from Edwards again, "when converted persons get into ill frames in their families, the consequence commonly, if not universally, is that they live without much of a comfortable sense of heavenly things, or any lively hope of heaven."* Friend, do you know God? Do you know of His love? Then by His Grace, may you show it to your fellow image-bearers while we walk this road together.
In love and humility,
Pastor Aaron Frost
January 28, 2021
*excerpts taken from "Heaven: A World of Love" by Johnathan Edwards. A copy can be read for free online at https://www.chapellibrary.org:8443/pdf/books/hawo.pdf
