if you love me keep my commandments and live

If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us” (1 John 4:11-12). John writes, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. Our motive for loving God is to be because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).Īnother way we show our love for God is by loving our brethren. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:9-10). John writes, “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. How? By the giving of His Son for our sins (cf. God did not just “say” He loved us, He “showed” He loved us. In fact, John simply states, “…God is love” (1 John 4:8). Love is central to the core of Who God is. One of the ways we show our love for God is by keeping His commandments. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked” (1 John 2:5-6). The apostle John echoes these words as he writes, “But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. How do we show God that we love Him? Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15).

Observing John’s growth in love encourages me as I know I need to grow in love. As the opening passage above shows, John places much importance of our abiding in love (1 John 4:16). However, by the time John writes his first epistle he had grown very much in the practice of loving others. No wonder Jesus referred to John and his brother James as “Sons of Thunder” (Mark 3:17). However, early in his following of Jesus, John did not always practice love towards others such as when he wanted to call fire down heaven to consume the Samaritans for not receiving Jesus (Luke 9:54). Jesus had taught John and the other apostles about the importance of their loving one another (John 13:34-35). The apostle John referred to himself as the disciple “whom Jesus loved” (John 13:23). God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:16).

“And we have known and believed the love that God has for us.

If you love me keep my commandments and live