Loving others = Walking in the Spirit

Bible Reading

• Luke 19
• 1 John 4

Devotional thoughts

John is continuing his theme of loving one another. He makes it clear that living a life of love is evidence of God himself at work through our lives. I love 1 John 4:12. “No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.” When others recognize something different about us, and see the love we have for one another, they are seeing God living through us!

You may ask, what does it mean to walk in the Spirt? What does it mean to live in God and God in us? John lays it out in very practical terms here. When we love one another, that is walking in the Spirit. When we love one another, that is God loving and living through our lives! When we are abiding in, or continuing to live a life of love, we are living in God, because God is love! (1 John 4:16-17) And the more we live that way, the better we get at loving one another.

John is so practical, he also wants us to know what living in love does not look like. 1 John 4:20-21 If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? And he has given us this command: Those who love God must love their fellow believers.” If we are not loving our fellow brothers, then we are not walking in the Spirit, and God is not living His life out through us, and we will not be displaying and perfecting God’s love, and therefore, not showing God to others (1 John 4:12).

Declarations

• When I live with a critical spirit toward others, that is not love.
• When I doubt God’s work in their lives, that is not loving them.
• On the other hand, when I do not confront sin in their lives, that is also unloving.
• Lord, I want to live like Paul did in 1 These 2:8.. sharing not just truth with people, but entering their world, and sharing my life with them. That’s what loving like Jesus did. (1 John 4:17)