God's love in us
Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another. No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and his love is made complete in us. 1 John 4:11-12 CSB
As we saw last week, God loves mankind so much that He gave His Son to allow the opportunity for humanity to be redeemed in their relationship with Him. John reflecting on what he wrote in the gospel about the love of God (see John 3:16), he now applies this expression of love to individual believer who experienced the supreme gift of love. This is why Paul, reflecting on this love of God, expressed his thankfulness: “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!” (2 Corinthians 9:15). This is love at the highest degree, to which John points out as the standard in which believers should love one another: “Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.” This command to love one another is second of two commands in which Jesus stated were the most important, as seen in Mark 12:30-31, “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” John then states that “no one has ever seen God,” which is true throughout the Bible, as individuals have never been able to see Him in His pure form, such as Exodus 33:20, “But,” He said, “You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live,” as well as John 1:18, “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known,” and many more (see Deut. 4:12, John 5:37, 6:46, 12:45, 14:9, 17:24, 1 John 1:1-3, and 1 John 4:14). Although we may not be able to see God, through the love we display to one another, John says, we can experience the same love that He has for us. The invisible God lives in us, “God remains in us and His love is made complete in us.” God expressed His love for us through His Son, and in response, we should display that same love by loving one another.
Blessings,
Isaac De Guzman
