God’s Love Perfected

Psalm 114:1 Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness
1 John 4:12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.

In the beginning of John’s gospel, He described Jesus as “The word.” (John 1:1) He said this word put on flesh and dwelt among us. (John 1:14) For centuries God had been describing through His words, both written and verbal through the prophets, what He was like, and How much He loves us. Israel was meant to be the nation to display His words, in the flesh, to the world. But they failed. So, God sent His son, who took on the form of a man, and humbled himself, even to the place of death (Phil 2:5-8) to make Gods invisible nature, visible. To show what God really meant when He said He loves us! (1 John 4:9-10)

Now John goes on to say in 1 John 4:12 that “no one has seen God, but if we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected or made perfect, in us.”  When we love others, they will see God through our lives.  Because true love only comes from God, (1 John 4:8) when we love, we are doing what God does, and our love will complete His love by putting flesh on it. Our love will be the living words of God, just like Jesus was. It will be God Himself, loving others though us. 1 John 4:13 says “By this (By seeing the display of God through our lives) we know that we abide in Him and He in us!

Abiding in the love of God is more then just head knowledge and mental assent. This is the sense David talks about in finding God to be his refuge (Ps 18:1-2), his place of safety, his high tower. Crawling into Jesus lap and resting in His loving arms. His unending, marvelous, steadfast love. As His love fills our soul, as His love impacts us more deeply, 1 John 4:19-20 becomes true, “We love because He first loved us.”  Oh, and by the way, John finishes those verses by saying, “When you are in love with God, you can’t possibly hate your brother.

Not to us O lord, but to your name, because my life is now filled with, completely occupied with your steadfast love, I give you glory! (Psalm 114:1)