Dear friends, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Whoever loves is a child of God and knows God. 1 John 4:7, GNT

 

John is not called the apostle of love for nothing. In this letter, which was most probably written to a broader audience than just one congregation, he touched on many things. The most important is his argument about love, which starts in chapter three and continues through to chapter five. In this, he discussed many aspects of love.

 

Years ago, I met a Jew from Israel who was in South Africa for an international conference. One night, he told me the almost unbelievable story of his conversion to Christianity. Some years before we met, he was in South Africa in connection with his work. In those days, he was not a religious person, not even of the Jewish faith. He knew very little of the Christian faith. One day, a South African colleague invited him to a church service. Out of pure curiosity, he accepted the invitation.

 

Although he could not understand a word of what was said during the Afrikaans service, the love that the church members showed him as a total stranger touched him deeply. He became interested, and as his knowledge about God and Jesus grew, the spark of faith that he experienced that first day grew into something wonderful. Not only did he become a Christian, but he also became the head of a Christian organisation in Israel.

 

As he began to learn more about God, his love for him just kept growing. It is absolutely true what John wrote: “Let us love one another, because love comes from God.” From the person who first invited him to all the people he met that day, it echoed what John said: “Whoever loves is a child of God and knows God.”

 

Behind this whole story, we see the truth of what we read in 1 John 4:10: “This is what love is: it is not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the means by which our sins are forgiven.”

 

Prayer: Heavenly Father, we can only stand in awe when we see that your love is so great that you can even save people who know nothing about you. Use us as a vehicle for your love. Amen