#DailyDevotion We Love One Another Because We Believe God Loved Us First
1 John 4:18-21 19We love because He first loved us. 20If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he’s a liar. If anyone doesn’t love his brother whom he has seen, he can’t love God Whom he hasn’t seen. 21And this is the order He gave us: If you love God, love your brother.
All of Christian life flows from how they believe God attitude is towards them. To tell you the truth, I think it is true that all of any person’s life flows from what they think God or whatever deity they think there is, attitude towards them is. There is a joke about this somewhat. A young man gets off a bus and sees an elderly man sitting on a bench. He tells the man that he’s thinking about moving to this town and asks him what the people are like there. The old man replies, “What are people like where you live?” The young man replies, “People are horrible there. They lie, cheat, will back stab you any chance they can and generally are just nasty people.” The old man replied, “People are like that here too.” So the young man got back on the bus and left. Another bus came by and another young man got off and asked the old man the same question and was asked the same question by the old man. This young man replied, “The people were wonderful there. They always had a kind word to say. They helped you whenever you needed it. They are very kind and generous.” The old man replied, “People here are like that too.”
If you believe God loves you first, for Christ’s sake you are generally going to love other people too. If you believe God hates you and is unmerciful towards you, you are going to act that way as well. While faith in God through faith in Jesus Christ does not remove sin from your life completely there is going to be a change in your life because your view of God has changed. In one way your life is going to change is you are going to start loving your brother. John doesn’t mean your biological brother here. He doesn’t mean the brotherhood of man brother. He means your Christian brother or sister.
John’s statement here goes back to Jesus’ command on Maundy Thursday. In John 14 Jesus tells his disciples, 34“I’m giving you a new commandment: Love one another! Love one another as I have loved you. 35By your loving one another everyone will know you’re My disciples.” Jesus didn’t say everyone here. He didn’t say everyone is your brother. He didn’t even say your neighbor. He told his disciples, “one another.” John is restating that teaching in his epistle lesson. Sure, we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. Christians are to love their fellow Christians as Christ has loved us. How did Christ love us? He gave up his life for us. He died for us. He suffered for us so we could have the forgiveness and love of God. So too, we should sacrifice our lives for our fellow Christians. We show our love for one another by forgiving one another. We may be called in our Christian lives to suffer for one another.
One thing is certain, we are not to hate our fellow Christians. If you hate your fellow Christian the love of God is not in you. You have forgotten the love God your Father has for you in Christ Jesus. John reasons you can’t say you love God whom you haven’t seen and hate your brother whom you have seen. You brother is the image of God. How you treat your Christian brother is how you treat God. Consequently, what you think God’s attitude towards you is is what your attitude towards God is going to be. If you hate your brother, you must believe God hates you. Go back to the Good News. Jesus is your atoning sacrifice and God’s love. Now live out that faith.
Heavenly Father, you showed us your love towards us in Christ. Give us your Spirit that we may love our fellow Christians in the same way. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.