Tuesday after Populus Sion, The Second Sunday in Advent
Posted on December 10, 2019 by under
Scripture: 1 John 4:9-16 (NKJV)
4:9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
Devotion
Although we do love non-Christians, this is not John’s primary emphasis. John primarily is talking about love of our Christian brothers and sisters; love that has its origin in Christ. “God is love” is often read by our world as if it said “Love is god.” The first statement is, of course, true. The inverse is not. Love is an attribute of God’s essence, it is part of who He is. Without that attribute God would not be who He is.
However, love is but one attribute of the whole—a completely integrated and undivided whole. To make one attribute the totality of God is to create a caricature, a cartoon. Many people want “God is love” to mean that God is ultimately and boundlessly permissive. This is a grotesque distortion, and simply a false notion, of God. God’s justice and righteousness does not allow that sort of permissiveness. Permissiveness is not love. “God is love” in that He would sacrifice Himself for us. This love is the natural core of His being. Love is not primarily feelings. It is actions. Christ loved us by dying for us. We love by crucifying our flesh and serving others.
We pray: Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to make ready the way of Thine Only-Begotten Son, so that by His coming we may be enabled to serve Thee with pure minds; through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
