December 28

Read: I John 4:7-12

If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us (I John 4:12).

The Ultimate Test

Jesus taught it. Paul wrote a hymn about it in the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians. John affirms that it is the very nature of God himself. In our scripture for today the Bible proposes it as a fair test for our experience of Christian perfection. What is this high quality of spiritual life? The answer is love. There is no human attitude that makes us more like God than to be filled with a spirit of love. John here seeks to show us how we may learn to love and to live according to the divine will.

There is some effort of acquaintance required for a man or a woman to walk with God. He is not as obvious as the rising sun. “No man hath seen God at any time.” But still, He can be known. This knowledge is outlined in five simple and clearly related propositions.

(1) “God is love.” This is not all that we know about God but this is what is most important. (2) Every loving thought and deed of mine has its origin in heaven, “for love is of God” — all love comes from Him. (3) If I do not have a spirit of love, I do not know God at all; “He that loveth not knoweth not God.” (4) If I have an attitude of love, it is an evidence of my spiritual parentage and shows my family connection. “Every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.” (5) There is no spiritual completeness other than to have the Spirit of God himself reigning in my heart. The only Christian perfection that the Bible teaches is a perfect love. “If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.”

Question For Today

All that God wants from me and all that He asks of me is a spirit of sincere and honest love, Have I opened wide every door of my soul and let God’s Holy Spirit fill me with that love?