We never get beyond God’s love for us in Christ and how that is lived out in love for one another. We are always drawn back to that central, and centering, claim. We know God’s love, first and foremost, through knowing Jesus; and we know God’s love because we have witnessed it in love for one another. 1 John 7 may serve as a reminder that we never grow beyond our need to hear again the gospel of God’s love in Christ.
Verse 7 immediately grounds the call to mutual love in the claim that love comes from God, and that those who love are God’s children and know God……Much of the anger that erupts within the church under the banner of loving God and defending God’s truth often seems to grow instead from love of self and of the power that comes from winning the argument, even at the expense of the church’s unity in love. (with edits from Brian Peterson, Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary)
How do you distinguish your love of self from your love of God?
How might you ground yourself in God’s love today?
