1 John 4:7-21
God’s Love and Ours
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 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. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
13 This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16 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. 17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19 We love because he first loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
Matthew 22:37-40
Two Greatest Commandments
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Have you ever wondered where Love started, or was created, or did love just happen as part of the Big Bang Theory?...Some, and many do say that the Big Bang Theory started life evolving, but what or who started love...Love to me is one of the biggest evidences of God...God created Love...God's Love was in the beginning, when He created the universe...Jesus was with God in the beginning (John 1:1-2)...St. John teaches us that Love came from God, because God is Love...We, as man, love because God first Loved us (1 John 4:19)...So, we love and know how to love and feel love, because God Loves us...When God created us, He made us in His image...And by being made in His image, His Love and Love is in us...Love comes from God...God's Love and His Son's Love is different than how we love and think of love...The type of Love God and His Son teaches, makes us complete...
God sent His Son into this world to teach us more about these things of Love, and about His Love and His Father's Love...We as man, seem intent on mostly loving our spouse, our family, and immediate friends...But God and His expression of Love is much, much more than love about our partners, family, and friends...God sent His Son to atone for our sins, which is a sign of his Love...Not only did He die for my sins, but He died for sins of people, all people...His Son would die for all of us and our sins, which is the Grand Showing of our Father's Love...As stated earlier, we are made in God's image...Also, when Jesus was born, He is called Immanuel, which means God with us...So the Father's and Son's Love, like the air, is all around us, with us, and near to us...His Love seems like the air, we do not always notice it...
When Jesus taught the two greatest commandments, He is teaching about God and His Love...We are to love our LORD, our God with all our heart, and all our soul, and all our mind...Then we are to love all our neighbors as ourselves...This is a hard lesson...We can talk, and talk about loving someone we do not like, but it is very hard...It might be easy, to say, I love God...It is sometimes difficult to love all our neighbors, while (we can say) we love all our neighbors in the same breath, when we say we love God -but do we?...St. John teaches us that if we hate a brother or sister, then we cannot love God or say we love God...But this is what Jesus teaches -love God first, then love your neighbors (all of them)...Only when we can truly love God, and trust God, and do His will, then we can love all of our neighbors as ourselves (and not just they neighbors we like or are friends with)...St. John uses the word "complete" in His discussion of God's Love...When God lives in us and His Love is made complete in us -then we can love one another...God is in us and near us, because He wants us to learn the Love like His Son was teaching, a perfect type of Love...This is what Jesus taught...The first and greatest commandment before all the others, is to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind...We cannot do the second commandment before we do the first and greatest of all commandments...For us to love all our neighbors, we must love God first...And when we do, He is complete in us...When we learn to love and trust God completely, then we can love our neighbors, and even our enemies (with His help)...
We must learn from His Son on how He Loved...He Loved each of us individually...He came for sinners, and Loved us...He Loved us and died for us, knowing we have faults, flaws, and are sinners...Jesus was complete in God, and God was in Him...For us to learn more about Love and the way Jesus Loved, we must realize He died not only for the ones who loved Him and followed Him, but He also died on the cross for each of us, even people that maybe we (and others) do not like or love...Jesus was not looking to die only for His Mother Mary or His other brothers and sisters (He did die for them too) or just His friends...Jesus truly Loved God, and therefore (or as a result), Loved all His neighbors, and died for each one of them too...He was easily willing to forgive them of their faults, their flaws, their sins, and Love each and every individual...Until I learn to love all my neighbors, as I love myself, and my family and Love more like Jesus Loved, then I will not be complete...We are first to love God, and then to love our neighbors, as ourselves...
Forgiveness and pride get in our way of our love many times...I think Jesus and His Father are so humble, and so forgiving, it makes others easier to Love for Them...We all must work on being more forgiving, and being more humble... Sometimes, I think we may say we are forgiving and humble, but when we think about one who has hurt us, harmed us or someone we do not like, or someone we say or think is just different things get difficult...Why don't and can't we just humbly forgive them -and love them like Jesus does and Love them?...It is because of who we are...It is difficult to always forgive, and to always have humility...
Our love must grow and mature like Jesus' LOVE, and how St. John explains Love in his first epistle...If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, then God lives in them and they live in God...The Holy Spirit is in us, when we acknowledge the Jesus is the Son of God...Then we can learn and Love like the Father and Son LOVE...Only when we Love like They do, can we reach our potential, and be complete...And when we have this type of Love in our hearts we are more holy, more sacred, more Spiritual...