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.
St. John teaches us that God is Love...He tells us love comes from God...Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God...This love and God is love gives us more than one thing to think about...That, God is Love, is important to know, when we reflect on our faith and belief in Him...God is the One who has put love in our hearts to seek Him...When we look at people, especially at the time when they first believed in God, what do you suppose is their reason (to believe in Him)?...How many people of all believers, did not believe in God, or did not have a belief in Him, or are young and just getting to know Him, set out and read the Bible without any bias one way or the other in God and are neutral on Him?...Now that these people, who did not believe or did not disbelieve, have now read the Bible and then go on to read the writings of the Great Saints, the C.S. Lewis books, and after reading have two lists...On one side of the ledger is why I believe...The other side of the ledger is why I shouldn't believe...One side of the ledger is Truth, and the other is why I should not believe in Him...This would be a logical way to seek and find God...And in following this through, now that I have found and know God, now and only now, and going forward -now do I love Him...
But I don't think this is how the majority of people, get to believe in God...I think most believers start out with love as the basis for their faith...They use love (most of the time for their belief in God) instead of logic...It seems that love might trump our reason...Love is first for our beliefs and our faith...This should not be surprising for believers...This love is in their hearts...God created our hearts...Since He is our designed our hearts, how else should we decide that He is God and we will believe in Him?...This love is part of the Holy Spirit, that God has put in each one of us...It is not that after we find God, we don't use our logic and rational to mature in Him and His Son's teachings and wisdom...I might suggest we are more logical and rational with and about our belief, after we find Him through our love (than before we believed in Him)...
This is the deepest kind of love, to love God...Because He designed the human heart, we cannot live without God...Our heart is one aspect of His image that He designed in us...We believe and have faith in God, because of a fundamental love, that He puts in us with the Holy Spirit...This is the deepest kind of love, that is the love we have for Him...God is Love, and He has put that image of His Love in our hearts...