Day 175 · Year 1 · The Story of Scripture
Love that comes from somewhere
1 John insists Christian love has a source, not a sentiment.
Today's passage
1 John 4:9-11
9This is how God’s love was revealed among us: God sent His one and only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him.
10And love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
11Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
Berean Standard Bible · public domain
Reflection
John does not start with the command to love; he starts with the fact that we have been loved first. 'In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son.' Christian love is downstream of being loved. When your capacity to love a hard person runs dry, the answer is not to squeeze harder; it is to go upstream — back to the love that came first. You cannot give what you have not received. You can receive again today.
From the great tradition · paraphrased
Bernard of Clairvaux · Medieval · 12th c. · France
Bernard of Clairvaux taught that we move from loving self for self's sake all the way to loving self for God's sake — but only because God's love comes first and reshapes the heart.
Paraphrase only. Scripture, not any teacher, is the authority.
Think it through
- Where does love begin, according to verses 9–10?
- What conclusion does John draw in verse 11?
- Which hard-to-love person comes to mind, and what would 'receiving first' look like there?
A prayer to pray
Receive again the love God showed you in his Son. Ask him to let that love overflow toward one specific person you find hard.