Love Rules

Love is the most powerful force there is. Love can transform even the most hardened heart. Love can cause someone to give everything of themselves. Love can lead one to offer gifts of great value to someone who is the object of that love. In 1 John 3:1-10, the Apostle John speaks of God’s great love for us. We begin to understand the depth of His love for us, when we realize that He not only saved us, but out of His love for us He has given us a great gift. He has adopted us and made us His children. The evidence that we are His children is that we are being transformed; living right and becoming more like His Son Jesus. Additionally, God’s love for us must be reflected in our love for one another. Alternatively, If we are still living comfortably in our sin, that is evidence that we instead belong to Satan. I pray that you are living your best life, in Christ Jesus, and that you are becoming more and more like Him every day! Amen

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.  (1 John 3:1-4) The Apostle John called on us to see (recognize, understand) the great love that God has lavished (generously bestowed) on us.  In His love, He has made us (Christians) His children.  [We should be clear that we are all God’s creation , but as Christians we have become God’s children through our faith in Jesus].  John went on to let us know that, as God's children, we are still a work in progress and not yet all that He has called us to be.  But we are being transformed by the Holy Spirit to be more like Christ.  And when Christ returns, we will be like Him.  Having this hope in Jesus (for His return and our glorification) should lead us to walk with the Holy Spirit, becoming more like Jesus. In this transformation process, we should be purifying our lives.

Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.  (1 John 3:5-6) The opposite of purity is sin, and sin is in opposition to God and His law.  We were lost in sin until Jesus came and died to save us from its consequences.  As followers of Christ, we should be purifying ourselves of sin.  In verse 1, John said that "the world did not know Him (God)".   So, if we are not striving to be more like Christ (purifying ourselves through the power of the Holy Spirit), can we really say we know Him?  And then, are we really abiding in (living in) Christ?    

Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister. (1 John 3:7-10) We are credited as righteous in God’s sight because of our faith in Jesus.  But continuing to live comfortably in sin indicates that one is not truly a follower of Christ.  John said that such a lifestyle is indicative of still being controlled by sin, which makes that person a child of the devil (not a child of God).   So John concludes that we know who the children of God are.  His seed (the Holy Spirit) has been deposited in them and they are growing into Christlikeness by the fruit of the Spirit.  We have become children of God through His great love, and if we are His children we too will love one another.

We are in an election season, where hate and vitriol are especially apparent. More than ever, in times like these, we need to show evidence that we are, in fact, God’s children. The Apostle John told us that we became God’s children because of His great love for us. In love, He sent His Son, Jesus, to die on Calvary and pay for our sins. In love, God offered us salvation to all those who have faith in Jesus. And in love, He deposited the Holy Spirit in us who believe in Christ, and He adopted us into His family as His children. How do we know for sure that we are God’s children? By our demonstration of right living and right loving (loving our brothers and sisters as God loves us), is evidence that we are God’s children. We live right and we love right by cooperating with the Holy Spirit, who transforms us into being more and more like Jesus. At the end of the day, you will know and the world will know that you are a child of God when Love rules your relationship with God and your relationship with your brothers and sisters.

Blessings, Rev. Glenn