Thursday, May 27, 2021

1 John 4 Devotions by Stephen Taylor

1 John 4:8

Whoever does not love does not know God because God is love.

1 John 4:16- And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

God is love, but by whose standards is this love defined? By our flawed and finite definition of love or by His perfect and unchanging definition?

We say love has to feel good, but God says love has to do good! Throughout the book of 1 John, it gives different insights and references to God's love (that we are to imitate), and it's associated with purity, sacrifice, and obedience. The love God requires us to display is not a soft and passive love but a fierce, loyal, and bold love; for Him and for people.

Christ's love carried Him to the cross and through it! His love overcame our sins and set us free. We can say I love you in many different ways, but one of the most powerful ways is by telling people the truth. And the truth is we are called to live a life of love, obedience, reverence, humility, self-denial, and service to the Lord.

What says I love you more: the words or the actions behind the words? Christ not only said He loves us but proved it by telling us the truth and taking our punishment that day on Calvary. Are we willing to share truth in love even when it's uncomfortable or unpopular?

One of the cruelest things we can do to those around us is to ignore their sins and continue to let them walk headlong into that trap. We're not called to condemn them, but we are called to speak the truth of God's Word in love and let the Holy Spirit do the rest!

(NLT) 1 John 5:2,3- We know we love God's children if we love God and obey His commandments. Loving God means keeping His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome.

1 John 3:16- This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

God bless! I love you all, but His love breaks chains! Glory, honor, and praise now and forever to Papa God, Jesus Christ our King, and the Holy Spirit!

 

1 John 4:16

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 

 

Yesterday, I was shaving my head and listening to the radio, and the DJ said he couldn’t wrap his mind around why God would love him. And the answer he said was because God is love and that’s what He does! It instantly brought me to tears and to my knees!!

 

See, I know we are supposed to love God and each other, but are we accepting that same love back??? I wasn’t! I was still sub consciously operating under the thought process of works for love and that, my friends, is the farthest thing from the truth!! God doesn’t love us because we do something for Him; He loves us because that is Him!!!! 

 


This life teaches us the exact opposite; it teaches us that the world will love us when we can do for them, but God is saying, “Let me do for you, because I love you!!” Accept His love, accept His mercy, accept His grace. He died and paid for it, so it’s His to give!!!

 

Are we above Him? No!! And if God says we are worthy of His love, then who are we to say, “I have done too much for Him to love me” or “ I have to do this or that to earn His love”? Those are lies straight from the pit of Hell and are the farthest things from who God is!!!! Don’t try to analyze or rationalize it but just accept His Son and allow Him to shower all these things and more down upon you!!! He gives it because He is it, and we need to accept it!! You can’t earn or buy something that is given freely!!!!

 

Be encouraged and be encouraging!! I love you all, God bless, and glory to God!!!

 

 

 

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