In part 1(click here to read it) we looked at the call to love and the challenges it presents. We also established the difference between the old and the new testament approach to our christian walk. With that background in place, let us now look at the text in 1 John 4.

1 John 4:7-21 CEV

(7) My dear friends, we must love each other. Love comes from God, and when we love each other, it shows that we have been given new life. We are now God's children, and we know him.

(8) God is love, and anyone who doesn't love others has never known him.

(9) God showed his love for us when he sent his only Son into the world to give us life.

(10) Real love isn't our love for God, but his love for us. God sent his Son to be the sacrifice by which our sins are forgiven.

(11) Dear friends, since God loved us this much, we must love each other.

(12) No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is truly in our hearts.

(13) God has given us his Spirit. That is how we know that we are one with him, just as he is one with us.

(14) God sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. We saw his Son and are now telling others about him.

(15) God stays one with everyone who openly says that Jesus is the Son of God. That's how we stay one with God

(16) and are sure that God loves us. God is love. If we keep on loving others, we will stay one in our hearts with God, and he will stay one with us.

(17) If we truly love others and live as Christ did in this world, we won't be worried about the day of judgment.

(18) A real love for others will chase those worries away. The thought of being punished is what makes us afraid. It shows that we have not really learned to love.

(19) We love because God loved us first.

(20) But if we say we love God and don't love each other, we are liars. We cannot see God. So how can we love God, if we don't love the people we can see?

(21) The commandment that God has given us is: "Love God and love each other!"

The old covenant approach to this text would be to try and love others in order to prove that you love and know God. If you don’t succeed, you begin to doubt if you are saved. Most of us would walk away from reading the text feeling condemned because of inadequacies in our love walk.

However under the new covenant, if God demands love of us, He has already given us the ability to do so, through His spirit in us.

1. "And now what the law code asked for but we couldn't deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us. Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God's action in them find that God's Spirit is in them--living and breathing God!" (Romans 8:4-5 MSG)

2. "This hope does not disappoint us, for God has poured out his love into our hearts by means of the Holy Spirit, who is God's gift to us." (Romans 5:5 GNB)

3. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." (Philippians 4:13 MKJV)

Trying so hard to be better

There is no telling

If you will fail or succeed

All you can do is try and hope

Trying is something you do

Who is to say it won't work for you

We have no injunction to try

Abide and manifest my fruit, it says

A vessel bear its contents

A temple holds its inhabitants

It's not about us but Him

Not what we do for Him

But what He does through us

No trying required

Simply be and He will do the rest

He's already finished

No more to be done

Save for Jesus to live

His perfect life through you

If stop trying and let Him

With this context in mind, the Lord showed me that 1 John 4 is like a puzzle to be put together to get the true picture of His love. His spirit has been sent to show us His love and empower us to manifest it.

1. "We, of course, have plenty of wisdom to pass on to you once you get your feet on firm spiritual ground, but it's not popular wisdom, the fashionable wisdom of high-priced experts that will be out-of-date in a year or so. God's wisdom is something mysterious that goes deep into the interior of his purposes. You don't find it lying around on the surface. It's not the latest message, but more like the oldest--what God determined as the way to bring out his best in us, long before we ever arrived on the scene. The experts of our day haven't a clue about what this eternal plan is. If they had, they wouldn't have killed the Master of the God-designed life on a cross. That's why we have this Scripture text: No one's ever seen or heard anything like this, Never so much as imagined anything quite like it-- What God has arranged for those who love him. But you've seen and heard it because God by his Spirit has brought it all out into the open before you. The Spirit, not content to flit around on the surface, dives into the depths of God, and brings out what God planned all along." (1 Corinthians 2:6-10 MSG)

2. "The Friend, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send at my request, will make everything plain to you. He will remind you of all the things I have told you." (John 14:26 MSG)

In the next installment we will look at God's love and what makes it different from ours.

Every Blessing

(To be continued...)

Breadoflife

click here to read part 3

To view others instalments in the series, click here