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 6:25-34
Do Not Worry
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Luke 23:32-38
Father Forgive Them, For They Do Not Know
32 Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. 33 When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. 34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
35 The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.”
36 The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar 37 and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”
38 There was a written notice above him, which read: this is the king of the jews.
St. John tells us the God is LOVE...There is no fear in love, and perfect love drives out fear...As we read this, it almost seems that fear is the opposite of love...Fear affects our lives and how we live...Fear can take away some of the things we like to do...Sometimes our fears take on things like worrying and anxiousness and we try to do what is safe (more and more) and can miss out on things in life...If our fears take away to many or so many things, then it can feel as if we are not living...
This is where love can help us with our fears...We sometimes hold on the ones we love when we fear something...And that is good...If we have perfect love, it will drive out fears...
Jesus teaches us not to worry or to fear things, and to let God take care of our anxiousness, our worries, and our fearful times...But still these times can haunt us, if we find it difficult to drop what we are anxious and fearful of...Since Jesus said do not worry, one must presume, He worried very little, if any (it does seem He was anxious or worried in the Garden of Gethsemane before His arrest)...
Fear and worry are related, so we must believe that Jesus also feared very little...Jesus had the Perfect LOVE for His Father and He knew that on His Judgment Day, He would be saved by God...And when He walked the earth, He feared very little and He even LOVED His enemies...Love makes us vulnerable, and so He would became vulnerable to His enemies, and those who opposed Him...How could He not become vulnerable to them if He truly LOVED them...And He did LOVE them...He also forgave those who would kill Him on the cross...So His LOVE for others made Him vulnerable and subject to being rejected and not believed and not being trusted...But that is the way of love...His LOVE for others may have gotten Him killed on the cross...Those who watched Him and were around Him, plotted to have Him killed...For to love is to trust and Jesus certainly LOVED those around Him, even though His teachings and His Ways put Him at this risk of being killed...
And so Jesus was placed on a cross...His Way and how He LOVED is the Great Example of Love that we have...He died on the cross out of LOVE...He LOVED those would oppose Him and those who would have Him killed, and yet He still forgave them...