Love One Another
FEB love series
Scripture Reading: 1 John 4
“Let us love one another, for love is from God…”
John gives us the divine command, “Let us love one another,” and then the divine reasoning, “for love is from God.” The logic is unassailable. Love should be the ongoing, reciprocal relational fuel of the church. The important thing to remember is the commands of the New Testament come with the requisite power to do them. We aren’t being asked to do something we are incapable of doing. When John says, “love is from God,” he is saying more than “God is a loving being and therefore we ought to be loving people.” He is saying that we have been given this gift of love from God. His love, the capacity to love, is given to those who have life in Christ.
You see this fleshed out as John continues saying things like, “God abides in us and his love is perfected in us…” (4:12), and “he has given us of his Spirit…” (4:13), and “whoever abides in love abides in God…” (4:15). So, yes love is commanded but it is a command accompanied by the power to do what is asked.
Jesus, by way of making this very point, often commanded the impossible. He told life-long cripples to stand up and walk. He told a days-old-dead Lazarus to come out of the tomb. These were humanly impossible. But when he commanded these things, like the time he told the man with the withered hand to stretch out his hand, he was commanding the impossible. At least it was impossible as much as it depended on those who were crippled and dead. But the commands of Jesus were attended by the power of Jesus. The crippled man still had to get up, Lazarus still had to come out, the man with the withered hand still had to reach out – they had to obey. Their obedience would not be possible unless they were given the power to do what they were told to do. Jesus doesn’t disappoint in that regard. He empowers for what he commands.
The command is to love one another. You can do that, not because you are a wonderful loving person, but because God is love, and He lives in you. Just do it by faith in Him. Obey and He will empower the obedience.