Word For The Day: Christ Took The Initiative

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good morning church. The Word for the Day comes from 1 John 4:10-11. This week we are looking at the commandment to “love one another”. The word “love” is used more often in this chapter (1John 4) than any other chapter in the Bible.

WHAT:

In 1 John 4:10 , take note that we are given a clear picture of what love looks like. The verse begins with “In this is love.” And the picture of love given to us is Jesus Christ sent by the Father to willingly take upon Himself the wrath of God for crimes we committed against God. This is the clearest evidence of God’s love towards us we have. No further explanation of what love is is needed. And yesterday we learned that we are to love one another “as Christ loved us”. Then notice that God took the initiative to love us. His attitude was NOT “if they love me, I will love them”. He loved us first. With this in mind, verse 11 exhorts is to love one another. The principle here is that loving one another is a reasonable response to God’s love towards us.\

SO WHAT:

Someone once defined worship as: anything we do that brings God pleasure is worship. 1 Samuel 15::22 informs us the highest form of worship is obedience. Jesus said that if we love Him we would obey His commandments ( John 14:15). Therefore, the obedient, loving, worshipful response to God and His love towards us is to love one another. 1 John 4:11 is directly to the point as it clearly says “…if God so loved us we ought to love one another”.

NOW WHAT:

What more could God do to demonstrate His love for us than to make payment for our sin? What better way to demonstrate our love towards Him than loving one another? If need be, ask God to give us a willing heart to love Him by loving one another.

Walk with God today brothers!

Pastor Tim