Dave's Diary

Daily Reading: 1 John 3

In this chapter the apostle John seems intent on proclaiming the message of God’s lavish love towards us. He frames everything else he writes with the great, central truth of the Christian gospel – our belovedness:

¹See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!

¹⁶ This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.

In His unspeakable love for us, God came to us in the person of Jesus Christ and sacrificed His own life to rescue us from the dominion of darkness and bring us safely into His Kingdom Family. John says that this is the very definition of love. It is the ultimate and perfect expression of love.

But John also knows that this is only half the story. The majority of this chapter shows us that God’s intention is never simply for us to revel in our belovedness. His intention is that out of our belovedness, we would extend His love to others. He brings us into His Kingdom of love and then calls and expects us to minister that love to others. He expects us to allow Him to purify us of our selfishness and recreate us in the likeness of His Son, Jesus … and that likeness is love.

¹¹ For this is the message you heard from the beginning: we should love one another.

²³ And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.

Lord, this day I commit myself to living out my belovedness through extending Your love to others. Please open my eyes to see every opportunity to do so; and please give me the courage and the strength to put Your love into action. Amen.