We love [a]Him because He first loved us.
9 “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.
10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
Our opening Scripture opens with a profound revelation of the love of God towards us and our response to it. It says we love God because He first loved us. The cause is His love for us, and the effect is our love for Him. Every cause demands and creates a corresponding effect. That’s the law of life. For example, when God commanded light to shine in the beginning at creation, the Word tells us light came into being (Genesis 1:3). The cause was the command of His Word, and the effect was light. John 3:16 tells us the cause of God’s love for us, which is the giving of His Son Jesus Christ to the world, such that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. The giving of Jesus to die for our sins that we may have life, is proof of His love for us. We cannot query God’s love for us anymore than we can query that the sun will shine tomorrow. God loves us and He has shown and proven it. Therefore, going by the law of life, we ought to respond to the same just as genuinely and as much as the cause, which is the love of God for us. The intelligible response to God’s love for us is what it means and takes to walk in the love of God, to remain in the love of God, to fellowship with God, to abide in His love, and to abide in Him. So, loving God is like a coin that has two sides. One valid side of the coin cannot make it a valid legal tender. Both sides must be valid.
The Lord Jesus tells us that loving Him is keeping His commandments (John 14:15). Hence, we know what it means to love God. Again, John 14:21 tells us that the one who loves God is he who keeps His commandments; for this is our love for God, that we keep His commandments, and they are not grievous (1 John 5:3). The New Commandment that governs the man in Christ is love. Why? This is because it is the only way to fellowship with God, and remain in His love; abiding in Him. Romans 13:10 tells us “Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” Beloved, let the love of God rule your thoughts, words and actions. Respond to God’s love for you by loving the brethren in the Name of the Lord.
My Solid Front (Confession):
In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I declare that I am taught by the Spirit of love to walk in God’s love. I am born of love, and the love of God is shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Spirit. I am of love and my walk is of love and in love. Amen.
Further Meditation: 1 John 3:20-23; 1 John 2:1-10.