1 John 4:7-11 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we 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.
Here in the UK, we have the celebration of fathers, “Father’s Day”, maybe some fathers get their breakfast in bed or are treated with gifts, or they get a day off from being a dad, dads get no rest just like mums where it is a 24/7 job.
Maybe you don’t have a father maybe your dad has passed away like my dad, but some of you haven’t been brought up with a father, maybe through marriage separation or even abandonment.
Sometimes the other way around, when your child or children ghost you, blocks you out of their lives, and this causes unimaginable pain and very close feelings of a loss in bereavement.
There is one Father whose love for you, and it is unconditional is that our Father God. God’s love for us is mentioned in the Bible in 1 John 4:7-11: –
Verse 7 “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” The word Love here is “agape” one of God’s attributes, where this love comes from God and it’s important to know that He’s not just loving but He is Love.
Verse 8 “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” For us to love as God loves (it is like He showers His love upon us), we need to be born again when we are saved and have the Holy Spirit indwelling in us. This gives us believers a certain focus where we seek the best for anyone, but we seek nothing in return.
Verse 9 “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.”
We do this because of God’s love was manifested (made obvious ~ clearly seen) towards us, we know this by that through God’s LOVE He sent, sent in the Greek means that God sent his Son on a mission as a diplomat or envoy. “His only begotten Son into the world,” (one of a kind) this reminds us of John writings in “John 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” This was why Jesus came to earth to die on the cross, so that a sinful world convicted of sin, through hearing the Word of God being preached, or reading the Bible or being witnessed too, etc. If a person repented of sin towards God, because we have sinned against Him and put our faith in Jesus and believe He died for our sins, we would receive eternal life.
Verse 10 “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son [to be] the propitiation for our sins.” God sets the level as we Christians are to personify.
Jesus was the Propitiation for our sin, He averted the wrath of God from us to come upon Himself in that He consumed the wrath of God and became the propitiation of our sin.
As Jesus cried out on the cross, it is finished which means “paid on full”, it was a declaration of victory in propitiation
Verse 11 “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” Its unfathomable at times to understand why God so loved us, His love went so far to remove His wrath upon us, where Christ paid the price for us. We need to take on this love for others.
This is so hard for me to get my head around at times but, I see people and think to myself, I will love them if they deserve it. It is hard to get up a couple of rungs of a ladder and get this into perspective to understand God’s showering love upon this world.
We need to get into this mindset and if we can’t we need to pray for wisdom, patience and love towards everyone.
Pray this we devotional will bring you closer to God our Father on this Father’s Day.
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