1 John 4:11-14 says,... and a video


Here is some material that I have went through and have been going through and it seems fitting to the passage covered today in our devotions.  --Adam--

Today's verses are 1 John 4:11-14, which read,

v.11 - Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

Pretty straight forward statement here.  We are to follow the pattern of God's love.  God's love was sacrificial by giving of Himself through His Son Jesus Christ.  Our love to others needs to follow suit and be sacrificially from ourselves.  The word "ought" means "to owe to another."  

v.12 - No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.

John starts with a fact here that God is not visible, but if we are a genuine Christian that is shown by the fruit of that calling, then they will see God's love through us because He abides in us.  Maybe this is where that phrase came from, "You maybe the only Bible or the only Jesus that they see."  It is a great witness of God when we love one another.

v.13 - By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us His Spirit.  

John, the teacher, is going back to review again.  The genuine Christian has been given the Holy Spirit by God and the Holy Spirit assures us and guides us to continue to live a life that is pleasing and glorifying of God. 

v.14 - We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

John, the disciple of Jesus, is going back to review again.  John wants his readers to remember that who is speaking and writing these words of Scripture was an eye witness to Jesus.  John was not only an eye witness, because there were many who saw Jesus, but also someone who understood and fully accepted that Jesus was sent from God and that He was and is the Messiah to the world.  John is saying, "I am not just telling you this, I am living this."

The greatest teachers are the ones who dispense more than just knowledge they know but the knowledge that they are living and fully resting their lives upon.  Many times those teachers are not formal teachers with all the academic education but then look at John.  He was a fisherman by trade but He had been with Jesus.  You and I have teachers and have had teachers that have been touched by Jesus and we were taught by their words and their actions.  We have seen it in action and it has helped us understand the love of God better.  John is asking his readers to continue the process so the world can know of the true love of God.

"Lord, You have given us Your Son as the greatest example of love and You have given us the Holy Spirit to be our guide and reminder of Your truth but You have also given us people who You have placed in our lives that have shown us what a genuine Christian is.  You are calling us to do the same for others.  Help me Lord to give to others what has been given to me.  Amen."

Pastor Adam
A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 38th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

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