- “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” John told us that the key to recognising the Spirit of truth is to recognise that they are from God. How do we do that?
By their character and life that honours love.
- “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” Why does John emphasise that love is born from being loved by God? What does it mean to have been loved by God in this context?
We can only be generous when we believe that what we have is enough. To know that we are loved is to know that we not only have enough, but that we are full and so we have all we need to love others.
- “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” What must result from our experience of God’s love?
Key word is “ought”. THe right thing to do as God’s beloved is to love one another. John adds further that when we take baby steps in love God’s presence and love will take us even further.
- “This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.” Finally, those who are from God have been given the Holy Spirit. From all that has been said, what are the vital signs in a person who is speaking from the Spirit of Truth?
The Spirit resurrects our spirit that was dead in sin. Our resurrected spirit feeds on God’s love; we rely on the love God has for us. The more we love the more we feast on God’s love and the more we are united with God, the more we are alive. Love is the key to life.