7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (NIV)
“THE BEST OFFENSE IS A GOOD DEFENSE.” That’s true for the Navy, and it might be true in football. Might even be true in basketball. But is it true for God? In the earlier part of this text, John urged us—even compelled us—to be very careful about what teachings and what teachers we listen to.
There’s a danger for us just to gulp down everything that seems spiritual and assume that everybody has something valuable to contribute, and that if we sort of combine everyone’s ideas, we’ll come up with a general idea of what God probably wants of us. But that’s nonsense. Jesus is the one who loved us and made us pure and holy before God. Part of the spiritual life of the believer is testing the spirits—testing those who teach, especially when they don’t come from our own fellowship.
The other part of our spiritual lives is love. We offend God and sin against him when we don’t love—when we put “me” first in what we do. When we puff ourselves up instead of building each other up.
Look at how John handles a concern in this congregation. In other places, John makes a point to say that he was among those who had seen and even touched Jesus—he was an eyewitness that Jesus had come in the flesh. But here, John seems to be answering a question that may have gone something like this: Did we miss out because we weren’t around yet to see Jesus come in the flesh? Are we second-class Christians just because we’re younger or newer Christians? John’s answer is “No.” We who saw him testify—and our witness is true. But you also have him in your hearts. And you have him in Scripture. And you have the proof of your own faith that tells you that this is the truth: God loved us so much that he gave his only son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Jesus loved us, he forgave us, and he saved us. This is the Jesus Christ we preach. This is the Jesus Christ we worship. This is the Jesus Christ who is at the center of everything we do. This is the Jesus Christ who compels us to love.
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. His wife, Kathryn, attended Chapel from 1987-1990 while studying Secondary Education (Theater and Math) at UW-Madison. Kathryn’s father, John Meyer, was also the first man to serve as a Vicar at Chapel.
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