INNsights: True Holiness T6: Energized by Love

This is exactly what happens with love. As John said, God first pours love into us. Jesus said whoever gives will receive back in the same way, so because God has given love to me, love springs up from within me, to be given back to Him. That’s pretty awesome, but it doesn’t just stop there, because now I have become the giver, and God became the receiver. So then He gives back again, which in turn causes me to give back to Him again, and so on. This the “love cycle”.

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FULL STUDY:

“God is love.” (1 John 4:8)

Love is a big deal. In the previous study we saw how love is the ultimate purpose in a fruitful life, and a key characteristic of dwelling in Christ. This is truly a manifestation of God’s own nature.

John’s letter covers multiple aspects of His love, and what our response should be. If we have become partakers of His nature, and He lives within us, love should characterize the new creation life. Love is the fullness of holiness.

The bible quote above is just part of the verse. This is the whole sentence:

“The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” (1 John 4:8).

This is huge! The word translated “know” there has many meanings, but in this context, it most likely means to know personally. At its deepest level, it might imply union. If we are in union with Christ, if we are walking in fellowship with Him, love will come out.

For most people, when they come into the new creation, they experience that love within themselves in some way. It may well up as love for God, or a fresh desire to forgive or help others, but it is released from within us. That is one key evidence that He has come into us and made us new.

Love is commanded, and is therefore a choice more than a feeling. We can engage love, activate love, and walk in love. But for this to be genuine God-love, we need to draw that from Him. It is not a self-work.

Sometimes we can feel that we are lacking love. We can slump into an overly self-conscious, self-focused mode, and love seems to stop flowing. Unconditional love at its root is selfless.

“Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8).

That is who God is within us. He is love.

Love is selfless!

But love is not just the absence of self. Much more than that, it is the presence of God. Sometimes we might feel lacking in love, and try to engage His love better. We can apply all the right faith steps we have studied, but it still seems something is wrong, or missing. John shares with us the vital key to unlock this:

“By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.” (1 John 4:9).

God sent Jesus so that we might live through Him. Isn’t that what we’ve been discovering in this theme of true holiness? This is the new creation! This is Christ in us! His presence in us is definitely the answer. But there is another key. The key that gets this flowing, and we find it in the next verse:

“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us.” (1 John 4:10)

Before love is something we can manifest, it is something we have to receive. We first need the love of God within us before it can be released out of us. When this happens, there is then a spiritual “law” that kicks in to sustain it:

“Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure—pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.” (Luke 6:38).

This is exactly what happens with love. As John said, God first pours love into us. Jesus said whoever gives will receive back in the same way, so because God has given love to me, love springs up from within me, to be given back to Him. That’s pretty awesome, but it doesn’t just stop there, because now I have become the giver, and God became the receiver. So then He gives back again, which in turn causes me to give back to Him again, and so on. This the “love cycle”.

“We love, because He first loved us.” (1 john 4:19).

God’s love for us starts the cycle, and it continues round and round. We love because He first loved us! So, if we are feeling like things have dried up, we need to re-activate the cycle. We know that God has already poured His love into us, so often it’s easiest for us to just choose to love Him back. The simplest way to do that is to engage the truth that He has poured love into us, and then thank Him for it. Thank Him for who He is, and what He has done. Or, even better, sing a song of worship to Him.

Most often, this re-activates the cycle, and we feel His love springing up within us. At other times, we could take some time to draw close to Him on the inside. Perhaps we’ve taken some knocks, made some mistakes, or just feel exhausted:

“let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” (Hebrews 10:22).

Let us draw near! Unashamed, welcomed, safe, we can draw near to Him to re-engage our sense of purity and fellowship with Him. One way to do this is find a private place somewhere and lie face down, consciously drawing near to Him. Or perhaps it works better for you to go for a walk, go to the gym, or admire nature around you – or spend time meditating in Scripture.

Union with Him becomes a manifested reality, anxiety leaves, peace comes, and His presence immerses us. Love is restored and released. This is extremely powerful, and can become the energy of our life in Him. The effects of this kind of encounter can linger for hours, or even days – it is His life manifested in us, and His love cycle activates once more.

“Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” (1 John 4:11).

The activated love flows readily in a cycle between God and us, but then He leads us to direct some of that towards others. In a real sense, He “puts others in the way”, so that they are impacted by His love that is returning to Him from our hearts.

Loving one another is the core of community, but there is also the call to love others outside too. Jesus challenges us to love those that do not love us:

“But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?” (Matthew 5:44-46).

Loving others is suddenly much more achievable, as our love expression to God gets directed toward others that do not love us. We are loving them through our expression of love to Him! This allows us to love anyone, irrespective of who they are or how they live. Loving God is the key to walking in love. It starts with a healthy and strong love cycle between God and us, and then loving others becomes an overflow, energized by His love flowing into us and through us.

Yesterday we discovered that the end-goal in fruitfulness is love, and also that the key to fruitfulness is abiding, or dwelling in Jesus. John sums all this up perfectly:

“We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. ¹⁷ By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the Day of Judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.” (1 John 4:16-17).

Notice how this principle starts with us knowing that God loves us! How important that is.  From there we begin to exercise the love cycle and abide in love, which John says means we are abiding in God, because God is love! That makes sense! The next statement is thrilling. By this, love is perfected in us. Now, religion will probably teach us that this is impossible – no-one can love perfectly. But John is revealing a tremendous truth. Love is perfected in us, because God abides in us! It is Him! John is simply explaining how to let God’s nature manifest. His love is perfect!

Perfected love brings us to an astonishing realization, the ultimate goal of union with Him, and the reality of true holiness, “as He is, so are we in this world.”

This is the power of the new creation. Created in His likeness, dwelling in Him and Him in us, manifesting all He is from within. As He is, so are we in this world. What a wonderful purpose!

He IS love! We are love! It is all Him, in Him, through Him, and by Him. Christ in us, the hope of Glory!

Praise Him!