“No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”
1 John 4:12
If I asked you who or what God is, chances are that at some point you’d say “God is love.” It’s the most precise and concise way to explain God. Everything that he is can be summed up in that word. In fact, perfect love only comes from God. There is no love more true or pure or great than the love of God.
Now if I asked you how you have seen God lately, how would you answer? I would guess that there would be answers about seeing God in the beauty of nature and his creation. There would also probably be answer about answered prayers. But I think the majority of answers would be about ways that you have seen God at work in the people around you, revealed by acts of love.
John says that though we cannot see God physically, love is how we know that he exists among us and lives within us. Love is how God reveals himself to the world. Jesus says in John 13 that people will recognize his disciples by their love. The mark of God among us isn’t a type of clothing or a marking or anything physical or material at all. It’s love.
When you love the people around you, you show God to the world. Now, when I say love, I mean the kind of love that Jesus showed us. Sacrificial love. Serving love. Merciful love. Compassionate love. Unconditional love. The actions that flow from that kind of love are the things that show the world that God is alive and he does exist and he is at work among us even today.
Love your neighbors. Not in a cheap Hollywood way, but in a real, Godly way. Love actively. Love selflessly. Show the world who God is and what he looks like. He has given us that power and entrusted us with that responsibility.
Prayer:
God,
Help me to love other as you have loved me. Thank you for the example of perfect love that you gave us in Jesus. I pray that you will help me to love the way he loves and that you will be glorified because of it.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen.
Add Comment