SEE IN THE BEAMS

1 John 4:9-11; 20-21
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust.

Loving One Another

9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 10 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.

20 If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? 21 And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their Christian brothers and sisters.

The Scriptures teach us that the most important things in this life – and the next – are relationships. God demonstrated His interest … His love for humanity … most fully in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ (the vertical beam). This love shows the greatest intention of God’s will for our highest good. John tells us that those who have entered into the love of the Father through His Son should naturally express this love in their relationships with others (the horizontal beam). In fact, those who do not love the members of God’s family should seriously question whether they really love God.

When we look at the Cross, we can see in the vertical and horizontal beams, these expressions of God’s love. He first loved us. Let us now love Him back and love one another.