No man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwells in us, and his love is perfected in us.
– 1 John 4:12
Thoughts on Today’s Verse…
God has the substance of love. His will is that brothers and sisters can love one another. But in real life, many people don’t know how to love them. For example: When we see their weakness, or their words or actions go against our wish, we start to despise and dislike them without love, tolerance or patience. Let’s see how the Lord Jesus loves people. God says, “To humanity He was always tolerant, never vengeful, but forgave them their sins, exhorted them to repent, and taught them to have patience, forbearance, and love, to follow in His footsteps and sacrifice themselves for the sake of the cross. His love for the brothers and sisters exceeded His love for Mary. The work that He did took as its principle healing the people and driving out demons, all for the sake of His redemption. No matter where He went, He treated all who followed Him with grace. He made the poor rich, the lame walk, the blind see, and the deaf hear; He even invited the lowliest, destitute ones, the sinners, to sit at the same table with Him, never shunning them but always being patient, even saying, ‘When a shepherd loses one sheep out of a hundred, he will leave behind the ninety-nine to seek the one lost sheep, and when he finds it he will rejoice greatly.’ He loved His followers as a ewe loves her lambs. Though they were foolish and ignorant, and were sinners in His eyes, and furthermore were the humblest members of society, He considered these sinners—men whom others despised—as the apple of His eye. Since He favored them, He gave up His life for them, as a lamb was offered up on the altar. He went about in their midst as if He were their servant, letting them use Him and slaughter Him, submitting to them unconditionally.”
From God’s words, we know that His love is great and selfless. Although we cannot do this like God, Jesus has established an exemplar for us and shown us the path of practice to love one another. In real life, we should follow this way to practice tolerance, patience and treat other people fairly. If others’ words or actions hurt us, we should forgive them without grudge or revenge. In this way, God’s love is perfected in us.
More attention: Bible Verses by Topic
