Notice on a slight format change:

Except for July 2012, these are mostly a collection of current devotional notes.

July 2012 is a re-write of old quiet times. My second child was born Nov 11, 1987 with multiple birth defects. I've been re-reading my QT notes from that time in my life, and have included them here. They cover the time before the birth and the few years immediately after the birth. They are tagged "historical." I added new insights and labeled them: ((TODAY, dd mmm yy)).

Tuesday, February 4, 2025

QT 2/4/2025 1 John 4:7-12, "Perfecting" love?

1 John 4:7–12 (ESV) —

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

 

NOTE: When I first read verse 10 many years ago, it was an eye opener. I think I loved God, but the scriptures teach that God loved us first. We had done nothing deserving of his love. He chose to love a wretched sinner, me. Along with that realization is that when I say "I love God," that is a paltry statement alongside the statement that "God loves me." Those two statements are light years apart from each other. In fact, I shouldn't even be able to say "I love God," because I have no idea how to love as God loved me. Jesus died for me. Paul says the same thing:

 

Galatians 2:20 (ESV) — 20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

 

Of course, the passage also says that if we love one another, his love is perfected in us. That seems impossible, the idea that God's love can be perfected in me. There is too much difference, but that is what it says. Then, the course is clear, I need to start loving others better. I need to sacrifice for them (like Jesus sacrificed for me). I need to consider how to reorder my time to make time for others. I need to pray more for those I love (or say I love).

 

PONDER:

  1. Do I really love my brothers and sisters in Christ? (not emotionally, but in deed and truth)
  2. How do I know I really love others? What is the evidence?

 

PRAYER: Father, help me as I grow in this area of love to truly love those around me. Help me to see needs. Help me to respond in love.

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