Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 1Jn 4:11-13
While most things in life can be appraised by their monetary worth, there is no price that can be ascribed to love. There are many accounts in Scripture that shows love, particularly God’s love, overcoming impossible barriers. Love is indeed powerful and significant. (Matt 15:22, 1Cor 13:7) As we have seen in our ongoing study of 1 John, God has loved us with an everlasting love, even while we were yet undeserving sinners. Having received God’s prevailing love, what can our mutual love for God and for one another do?
We can love like God. When we were saved, God gave us a new nature. He gave us the freedom to love like Himself – in essence, he enabled us to partake in His divine nature as we love one another. (2Pet 1:4, 2Cor 5:17) Apostle John repeatedly addresses the church as “beloved,” emphasizing that God’s love for us is no different from His love for Jesus, Whom the Father called “beloved” upon His baptism. Since God so loved us, we must respond as His beloved to His beloved; we are compelled by God’s love to love one another with the same intensity. God is love, therefore, we must love. (Lk 6:36, 1Pet 1:15) We can love like God in these ways:
Sacrificially- Sacrificial love withholds nothing. (1Jn 3:16) Even if we receive nothing in return, we give; in offense, we forgive; in spite of our own loss; we love. Sacrifice is a foolish thing to the world, but it is the essence of God’s love. (Jn 12:24)
Practically- Love is an activity, not an attitude. In love, God met our greatest need- life and forgiveness. He showed His love perfectly by meeting our needs through Jesus Christ. In order to love practically, we must be involved in each other’s’ lives, always interceding for one another in prayer and striving to provide any aid for them.
Unconditionally- God’s love is not contingent on our good works. Even when everything we did was an offense to His holiness, God loved us and sent his Son to die for us on the cross. (Rom 5:8) We must likewise love – not because they prove that they deserve our loves, but because we are compelled by God’s love to love.
Imperatively- God’s love is not passive, nor is it administered only when needed. God loves us decidedly and purposefully at every moment of our lives. Our love for one another must also be active. The ability to love like this is a display of God’s grace – the unsaved man, in his depravity, cannot truly love, but when he receives Christ, his nature is changed so that he can love according to the Biblical standards of love.
Personally- God’s love is not aimless. It is always focused and targeted. We must also love in an unambiguous way to our brothers and sisters, in both giving and receiving in love. The church is a body of love- we are those who are loved by God, who love God and practice the love they have received from God by loving God’s people.
Mutual love makes God’s presence evident. No man has seen God – because He is Spirit – but as we love one another, we are able to see God operating through the Holy Spirit within us. Godliness always results in love. In a sense, God abides in us as we love, and this enables us to bear the fruit of His Spirit. We are sanctified as God’s love takes root in us. This is a happy cycle – Through our continual practice of loving one another, we can learn more of God’s love, which emboldens us to love one another all the more.
Mutual love assures us of our salvation. All children of God experience seasons of doubt regarding their own salvation. How can we recover from doubt? We can over doubt by the love of the church and God. In practicing and receiving love in the body of Christ, we can know that we are loved God, as He loves us. (v.13) This is because love and faith are inseparable- as you practice love, faith expresses itself through that act of love. (Gal 5:6) Conversely, if you stop practicing love, faith cannot grow. How does this work? The Holy Spirit intertwines our love and faith, making them both real and effective. The first fruit of the Spirit is love, and we are able to love one another by the Spirit’s power. He is the One who assures our hearts of our adoption as sons. (Rom 8:15)
Beloved, let us love one another as God has loved us. We can never exhaust the riches of His love; it has been poured into our hearts through His Spirit. Let us therefore strive toward new heights of the effective power of God’s love in our lives by passionately and faithfully loving each other.
BIBLE COMMUNITY CHURCH 
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