Jesus Is the Embodiment of "God Is Love" (1 John 4:7-8; 13-16)

John the disciple of Jesus, was known as "the son of thunder" had become "the Apostle of love."
Love effects

“Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who love is child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love”

(1 John 4:7-8, NLT).

This is the third (or more) time that the Apostle John brings up the subject of “love”. So it must really have been a great concern for him – especially God Himself. But each time John talks about love, he doesn’t just repeat himself but talks about love in a deeper way, that is why I love God’s Word because it is never boring. How John knows about “love” so much? Because John had lived with Jesus physically on earth and after the resurrection, Jesus lives in him (and all of us) thru the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the embodiment of God, love in action. So John can say with confidence: “God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us. Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world. All who confess that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love” (1 John 4:13-16). John is not talking about theory or principle, but the reality of love – John has seen Jesus and he knows that “God is love.”

From our previous studies we have already seen that love and hate are like light and darkness. And that we show people that we are God’s children by the way we treat other people. But here John ties the subject of love into the very essence of who God is – “God is love.” John says that love begins with God. Since the very beginning of time, God has cared about the world and people. The Bible says, “For God loved the world so much…” (John 3:16).

[Basically, there are three ways the word “world” is referred to: 1) the physical world, 2) the world's evil system, and 3) the people of the world. We are to love 3) and care for 1) but to hate 2) totally.]

Way back in the Book of Genesis, we read that God created people in His image – in the likeness of God (see Genesis 1:26). We are different from the tigers and monkeys, the pigs and the fish. We are special and different from everything else that God has made. And to be created in the image of God, we must love, since God is both the source and origin of love. It is just God's nature to love. Thus, by knowing Jesus we know God (John 14:7), we then learn to love; and by loving other people - especially our brothers and sisters in Christ - we learn to know God and His Son. It works both ways. The word “know” here is more than just a head or intellectual knowledge. To know God is to share our lives with God. It is the deepest kind of friendship or relationship – the best kind of all.

“Let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God.

Anyone who love is child of God and knows God.”

And Jesus says, “If you had really known me,

you would who my Father is” (John 14:7).

Do you know who God is? Do you know what love is? Know Jesus.

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.