Contemplation #79
“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.” 1 John 4:7
We may find ourselves reading passages that use the term “one another” and conclude that because the statement is from a letter written to Christians that it means believer to believer. Or perhaps because this is addressed to “dear friends,” we might assume this admonition is describing love among companions. If this were true, then the love described here would not be the love one has to one’s neighbor – any neighbor. But God has one love, of one nature, and does not love one way to some and another way to others. Human love is preferential.
Instead, in the use of the endearing term friends we recognize the fruit of a love for our neighbors. Out of love for our neighbors we graciously call them friends, not because of who they are to us or what they may have done for us, making it a term reserved for those who feed our “self-love”, but because of how we love for God’s sake. Passages about living “one to another” are not restricted to the community of believers, but speak to how the world is transformed to us through our looking at everything in love.
Contemplation #80
“We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers.” 1 John 3:14
Love is the evidence that the Reign of God, his Kingdom, is in us and we are living with its realities. Through the practice of the love God teaches, we see proof that He is transforming us from a life of separation and death into life eternal in Him and through Him. In the new life, that is true existence, everyone becomes our brothers; there are no enemies for so-called enemies are the subjects of our love. Though we may be called ‘adversaries’ by others, we do not reply in kind. Having enemies is the life of death. We know all people as only brothers.
Contemplation #81
From My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers
When love, or the Spirit of God, strikes a man, he is transformed, he no longer insists upon his separate individuality. Our Lord never spoke in terms of individuality, of a man’s “elbows” or his isolated position, but in terms of personality – “that they may be one, even as We are one.” If you give up your right to yourself to God, the real true nature of your personality answers to God straight away. Jesus Christ emancipates the personality, and the individuality is transfigured; the transfiguring element is love, personal devotions to Jesus. Love is the outpouring of one personality in fellowship with another personality.
“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.” 1 John 4:7
We may find ourselves reading passages that use the term “one another” and conclude that because the statement is from a letter written to Christians that it means believer to believer. Or perhaps because this is addressed to “dear friends,” we might assume this admonition is describing love among companions. If this were true, then the love described here would not be the love one has to one’s neighbor – any neighbor. But God has one love, of one nature, and does not love one way to some and another way to others. Human love is preferential.
Instead, in the use of the endearing term friends we recognize the fruit of a love for our neighbors. Out of love for our neighbors we graciously call them friends, not because of who they are to us or what they may have done for us, making it a term reserved for those who feed our “self-love”, but because of how we love for God’s sake. Passages about living “one to another” are not restricted to the community of believers, but speak to how the world is transformed to us through our looking at everything in love.
Contemplation #80
“We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers.” 1 John 3:14
Love is the evidence that the Reign of God, his Kingdom, is in us and we are living with its realities. Through the practice of the love God teaches, we see proof that He is transforming us from a life of separation and death into life eternal in Him and through Him. In the new life, that is true existence, everyone becomes our brothers; there are no enemies for so-called enemies are the subjects of our love. Though we may be called ‘adversaries’ by others, we do not reply in kind. Having enemies is the life of death. We know all people as only brothers.
Contemplation #81
From My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers
When love, or the Spirit of God, strikes a man, he is transformed, he no longer insists upon his separate individuality. Our Lord never spoke in terms of individuality, of a man’s “elbows” or his isolated position, but in terms of personality – “that they may be one, even as We are one.” If you give up your right to yourself to God, the real true nature of your personality answers to God straight away. Jesus Christ emancipates the personality, and the individuality is transfigured; the transfiguring element is love, personal devotions to Jesus. Love is the outpouring of one personality in fellowship with another personality.
posted by Greg at 8:01 AM
<< Home