Dave's Diary

Daily Reading: 1 John 4

One very helpful way to study a passage in an apostolic letter of the New Testament (an epistle) is to work on rewriting it’s teaching, or the argument it is presenting, in one’s own words. This exercise helps one to ensure that one is digesting the core truths of the particular passage of Scripture. The rest of today’s devotional post is my “journal entry” for today on 1 John 4:7-21. I have included particular verse references after each statement to indicate my source for each statement.

God is love – perfect love – and Jesus is God’s perfect expression of perfect love (v.8-9). Therefore, when one is born again through faith in Jesus the only appropriate life to live is a life of love (v.7-8).

God’s love was expressed and manifested through God’s Son, Jesus, in this way:

God sent His Son into the world (v9), so that
He would live and die, in an expression of God’s perfect love for humanity, as an atoning sacrifice for every sin we commit (v.10), so that
We would receive Jesus as the Son of God (v.15), so that
God Himself would live in us in perfect love by the Holy Spirit and then live His life through us by the Holy Spirit (v.12, 13 & 15), so that
God’s perfect love and presence would be manifested through us as we live out God’s perfect love in the world (v.11-12, 16, 19-21)

Oh what wondrous love!!

God’s desire is that the perfect love He manifested in the world through Jesus, the Son of God, would continue to be alive, active and manifested in the world through you and me, by the life and power of His own Holy Spirit who lives in us and through us.

Come Holy Spirit of the Son of God, the perfect manifestation of the love of God, and live in me and through me today. I yield myself to You. Amen.