by Paul Tan
Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. 1 John 4:7
It is interesting to note that after years of fruitful ministry in the early church age, the apostle John sees it fit to come back to the greatest commandment of all time as outlined by Jesus Christ – to love God and to love people. John writes this towards the end of his life on earth after shepherding the early church since the ascension. It seems that love is both the beginning and end of all ministry for God, and that at the end of the day, we will never outlast the need to love each other.
In this passage the apostle John states something that is pivotal for our engagement with ethical and moral dilemmas of our day; that love comes from God. When it comes to our love for other believers, John is stating that we are to love them not from our own selves, with the love that we in our fallen state can provide, but with the love of Christ. This is a supernatural love, one that does not find its origin within our own selves but from the One who lives inside of us – God. In our interactions with people, both Christian and non-Christian alike, we are not to live out of our own selves with our own love, our own wisdom and our own understanding. Instead, let’s allow the love of God to flow through us more and more as we are changed into His likeness. It is His love that changes lives, sets the prisoner free and binds up the broken-hearted.
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