CoA Week 4
~Company of Angels~"...You have had a clear picture of Jesus Christ crucified, right in front of your eyes..." -Gal 3:1
Weekly Bible Reading
1 John 4:7-21
My dear friends,
let us love one another,
since love is from God
and everyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.
Whoever fails to love does not know God,
because God is love.
This is the revelation of God's love for us,
that God sent His only Son into the world
that we might have life through Him.
Love consists in this:
it is not we who loved God,
but God loved us and sent His Son
to expiate our sins.
My dear friends,
if God loved us so much,
we too should love one another.
No one has ever seen God,
but as long as we love one another
God remains in us
and His love comes to its perfection in us.
This is the proof that we remain in Him
and He in us,
that He has given us a share in His Spirit.
We ourselves have seen and testify
that the Father sent His Son
as Saviour of the world.
Anyone who acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God,
God remains in him and he in God.
We have recognised for ourselves,
and put our faith in, the love God has for us.
God is love,
and whoever remains in love remains in God
and God in him.
Love comes to its perfection in us
when we face the Day of Judgement fearlessly,
because even in this world
we have become as He is.
In love there is no room for fear,
but perfect love drives out fear,
because fear implies punishment
and no one who is afraid has come to perfection in love.
Let us love, then,
because He first loved us.
Anyone who says "I love God"
and hates his brother,
is a liar,
since no one who fails to love the brother whom he can see
can love God whom he has not seen.
Indeed this is the commandment we have received from Him,
that whoever loves God, must also love his brother.
How did God show us that He is love?
How must we repay that love from God?
How does perfect love cast out fear?
For Memory:
"You must see what great love the Father has lavished on us
by letting us be called God's children--
Which is what we are!
The reason why the world does not acknowledge us
is that it did not acknowledge Him." (1 John 3:1)
Labels: Company of Angels, St. Andrew's
posted by Gregory at 4:14 p.m.
1 Comments:
It always, always, always comes back to the Cross. God's love was demonstrated in perfection by the Cross, through which we have forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with Him.
We must repay that love through love, love back to God, and love poured out to others. It's all of a piece. It all flows together. If we love God, we'll love each other. If we don't love others, we don't truly love God.
Loving others, and loving God, changes us. It perfects us. As Jesus said, that love fulfils all the law. If we live that love perfectly, then we will become as God is, perfect in love. That's what our life is, a journey to that perfection. When we love perfectly, we have no need to fear, because we will have faithfully served God! Thus the fear of punishment is gone, because nothing perfect can be punished.
So let us continually strive for that goal, to love God and to love others above all else.
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