re-Ver(sing) Verses

1 John 4:19 | NIV (1984) | Other Versions | Context

Brief

Admittedly, love is not my best topic at hand, though it is one that I cannot avoid. 1 Cor 13:13 says very familiarly, and now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. I’d probably write about faith and hope a lot better than I do about love, but what would we be, if

not for love? 1 John 4:19 simply gives people who over complicate Christianity a reason why we should love, but perhaps this verse is more than just a ground for love.

Analysis

We love God because we find that He has loved us first. There is perhaps a hint at a sense of obligation or gratitude in this sentiment. If this were to be romance, and you love somebody because he or she loved you first, it would be a pretty half-assed romance, wouldn’t it? But this isn’t romance. It is a human tendency to find it easy to love somebody who loves us first. It is human tendency to be treat someone as how we’re being treated. Even though we’re sinners, God has unconditional love (agape) for us. In comparison, for us to love God must be easy, for He is perfect.

We are able to love, in general, because God first demonstrated this love by loving us. God is love (1 John 4:8); love comes from God (1 John 4:7); God lives in us if we love one another (1 John 4:12). We were made in God’s image (Genesis 1:27), and thus all of us are capable of loving. This sentiment is repeated in 1 John 4:17 – In this world we are like him. We are told to love one another, because in saying God loves us, He loves our neighbours too. Loving God is one thing – God is perfect, God is not difficult to love, in comparison to the unlovely people around us. Even so, learn to love the unlovely; learn to love yourself as well. Learn how to love like God does – the fatherly, perfect, unconditional love that enabled Him to send his son to die for us (1 John 4:10).

Conclusion

You cannot believe that love, faith and hope are not related at all. How can a person be full of love and have none of faith and hope? How can a person be full of faith and seriously not love at all? While it is certainly easier to draw links between faith and hope, love is the very basis of Christianity, simply because God is love. Must we love? Do we have to love? It really isn’t a choice, is it? Even if we don’t want to love, love will not escape us. Rejecting love will probably cause more problems than if we try to embrace love. First embrace the idea of love, and second, love like how the Father loves. Not a manly, worldly kind of love, but a pure, unconditional love.

We love because God first loved us.

God bless,
Z.