A Love Choice
Opening Prayer
I praise You, God! You have proved Your love for me by doing all that was necessary to make me a part of Your family.
Read 1 JOHN 2:1–14
My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
Love and Hatred for Fellow Believers
3 We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. 4 Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. 5 But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.
7 Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. 8 Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.
9 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. 10 Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. 11 But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.
Reasons for Writing
12 I am writing to you, dear children,
because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.
13 I am writing to you, fathers,
because you know him who is from the beginning.
I am writing to you, young men,
because you have overcome the evil one.
14 I write to you, dear children,
because you know the Father.
I write to you, fathers,
because you know him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men,
because you are strong,
and the word of God lives in you,
and you have overcome the evil one.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
According to this passage, do you know Christ? Are you in him?Films, social media and popular music would have us believe that love is an unpredictable emotion rather than an act of our will. So we “fall in love” rather than “choose to love.” Love, as modeled by Jesus, was a deliberate choice to love the undeserving. Love was proved, not in words or feelings but in self-sacrificing action (2).
Jesus expected his followers to copy him (John 15:12,13). Seventy years later, John reminds Christians that nothing has changed (4,6,7). 2,000 years on, the message remains the same: we are to love God’s family (9–11).
There’s the rub: we don’t get to choose who belongs to God’s family, God does. God’s family, as the song says, is made up of “all kinds of kinds,” which is why relationships within the church can be so difficult. Living as Jesus did means we must choose to love fellow Christians, which, at times, will be painful and costly. Are we ready to sacrifice our time, our emotional energy, our pride to love God’s family? When we choose to love, we allow more of God’s light to push away the darkness (8).
Apply
Who do you find difficult to love? Make a choice to love today. How will you put this decision to love into action?
Closing prayer
Loving Father, give me the strength to love like You love and to live as Jesus did.
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