Loving God

DEVOTION 1 JOHN LOVING GOD 1 John 4:19-21 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother. NIV We are still getting talked to about loving each other, but this time it is even more pointed. Here we are being told that if we have any ill feelings, which are labeled hate, toward anyone else in the body of Christ we simply do not love God. Once again we might attempt to justify ourselves by thinking we actually do not hate anyone in the body of Christ, or even outside the church, that we only dislike them or have a difficult time liking them because they are just so arrogant, or self-centered, or whatever. We put the blame for not loving them on their personality or certain behaviors rather than coming to terms with the simple fact we are being disobedient to God by not loving them, as well as we are being lairs when we tell people we love God. Wow, that is calling a spade, a spade, isn’t it? But is that the truth spoken of here? If we go around telling people we love God and then act in a manner which does not reflect that, we are lying to them, but even worse, we are lying to ourselves. If we do not behave in a loving manner toward all other believers, then we cannot actually love God. Then is no middle ground here either. We simply cannot hate them, we have to love them. We cannot be indifferent to them or ignore them for that would not love toward them. We cannot justify ourselves by saying, “Well they do not love me so I do not have to love them”. It is a without question a love triangle of the best kind. We love God therefore we love them, and we love them therefore we love God, and they love us because they love God, and they love God therefore they love us. Now that is an ideal situation which seems to have some sort of inherent problem, which would be us. Somehow we fail, we fall way too short in the part about loving each other and that would imply we fail in loving God. Acknowledging the truth is one step closer to loving God and thus loving each other. Is this something we need to repent of? Any ill feelings at all need to be laid at the feet of Jesus, seeking forgiveness and asking for the Spirit to inspire our love for all the saints, as we can then truly love God.