God is Love

God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. (1 John 4:15-16a, NRSV)

God lives in us when we love one another and confess that Jesus is the Son of God. Some may say that these two things are two completely different things. But I say that you confess that Jesus is God’s Son when you love one another. Because the love we have comes from and comes to us by Jesus coming and living among us and showing us how to live and love each other. You see we get God’s love through Jesus and if we love one another we are proclaiming that Jesus is the Son of God, and if we do not love one another we are confessing we do not believe Jesus is God’s Son.

So is Jesus God’s Son, and do you love one another?

God is Love

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. (1 John 4:13-14, NRSV)

We are able to love a world that hates us and to spread God’s love in the darkness of our lives because God has given us His Spirit. Not because we earned it or deserve it, but because He first loved us and showed that love by sending His son to redeem us and give us love when we didn’t deserve it.

So let God’s Spirit dwell in you and fill your life so that it overflows into everything you do and takes over your world.

God’s love will flow freely and spread. Let it.

Let God work through you!

God is Love

Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. (1 John 4:11-12, NRSV)

If we love one another God lives in us and His love is perfected in us.

We get the love of God dwelling in us when we share that love with others. Not when we hoard it all for ourselves. Not when we tell others all the things they are doing wrong and have to fix before God will love them or they will be worthy of God’s love because God didn’t do that to you.

You see God loved you when you were separated from Him and before you were worthy as if you are worthy of God’s love now. None of us will ever be worthy of God’s love, but He loves us anyway. And we ought to love others as He loves us so that His love will be perfected.

Love as God loved and loves you.

God is Love

Beloved, let us love one another because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 John 4:7-10, NRSV)

If you do not love you do not know God.

And the reason we have love is not that we loved God, but that God loved us while we were yet sinful and sent His son to show us love.

So if we do not love we are not a part of Him.

And we love others not because they deserve our love, but because God first loved us.

Testing the Spirits

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming; and now it is already in the world. Little children, you are from God, and have conquered them; for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and whoever is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. (1 John 4:1-6, NRSV)

Fake News is rampant. But here is the real issue. There is no such thing as fake news. There is false news and incorrect news. But to say news is fake is like calling a human being illegal.

You can not believe everything you hear or read. And as followers of Christ, we should discern any information we get regardless of the source to make sure it is the truth that will help us be better followers of Jesus.

All news is not true and will not edify the body of Christ, so discern everything you hear and test if it is from God.

Test the things you hear and read so that you might continue to grow as a disciple of Jesus.

Love One Another

And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us. (1 John 3:23-24, NRSV)

How do we know when Jesus is abiding in us?

Well, what does abiding mean and do I want that?

Abiding means to continue for a long time. So Jesus abiding with us means He is with us for a long time. Actually one would say that Jesus abiding with us is a forever thing. He is always with us, He abides with us forever. He remains with us always.

And how do we know He is abiding with us?

When we love one another. If we do not love one another, then Jesus is not with us.

So do you love, and is Jesus with you?

Love One Another

Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God; and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him. (1 John 3:18-22, NRSV)

Let us love not by saying we love other, but by our actions showing that we love.

Even when our hearts condemn us, God is greater than that to love us and set us free.

God will empower us to be bold in our loving a world that hates us and God.

Be bold and love!

 

Love One Another

For this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We must not be like Cain who was from the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. Do not be astonished, brothers and sisters, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love one another. Whoever does not love abides in death. All who hate a brother or sister are murderers, and you know that murderers do not have eternal life abiding in them. We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? (1 John 3:11-17, NRSV)

How does one lay down your life for another?

Yes the easy answer is to die for them. But that isn’t really what God is asking us to do, at least not literally.

God wants us to die to self. Not think about ourselves more than we ought. God wants us to put others before ourselves. We need to help those in need and our brothers and sisters around us.

We can not murder, harm, think ill or our brothers and sisters and be walking in God’s light.

Love as He loved you.

Children of God

Those who have been born of God do not sin, because God’s seed abides in them; they cannot sin, because they have been born of God. The children of God and the children of the devil are revealed in this way: all who do not do what is right are not from God, nor are those who do not love their brothers and sisters. (1 John 3:9-10, NRSV)

If you do not love your brothers and sisters you are not from God. This doesn’t mean you agree with them always. It doesn’t mean you agree with everything they do. It means you love them. And not the kind of love that needs it’s own way to be done. The kind of love like Jesus has for you. Accepting them as they are and loving them where they are.

Love you brothers and sisters.

Children of God

Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. Everyone who commits sin is a child of the devil; for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3:4-8, NRSV)

Hold on just a minute. Everyone who sins is a child of the devil. And if you are in Him you do not sin?

Makes me stop and wonder if I really have been redeemed by Jesus.

Makes you wonder if you are a child of God. But here is the things. We are God’s children but this world and its ruler have a way of getting under our skin and turning us away from God.

This is where the Luther concept of sinner and saint comes in. Always chd of God, always child of devil. We ha e two natures.

Let God win.

Let Love Win.