God Shares His Love
“Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
1 John 4:11 (ESV)
Loving your neighbor is not a moral effort. When we try to love out of duty, we quickly wear out, and the love we produce rings false. John offers something different: if God so loved us… The love He asks you to give is the love you have already received — not a love to manufacture from nothing.
You are not the reservoir, you are the channel. That is why this promise changes everything for those who feel empty. You do not need to have a great stock of love to love — you need to stay in contact with the One who is its source. Brotherly love is not a personal virtue; it is the sharing of what passes through you.
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
John 13:34-35 (ESV)
We love because he first loved us.
1 John 4:19 (ESV)
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
1 Corinthians 13:1 (ESV)