Dave's Diary

Daily Readings: 1 John 3-4 and Psalm 49

1 John 3-4 is intense and jam-packed with memorable statements about the Lord, His love for us, and the eternal life He longs to pour into us. What follows is my attempt to summarise its main argument.

The real, true, deep, rich, full and abundant life for which we were created is life in deep fellowship with God. God grants us this life as a gift, which He gives to us because He loves us with an everlasting love. He expressed His love in time and space by entering our world in the person of Jesus Christ. In Jesus, God lived and exhibited His love towards humanity. Not even humanity’s cruel rejection and crucifixion could prevent Him from loving us and, in love, He laid down His life for us.

When we see and believe this truth of God’s love in Christ – that God is love and we are His beloved – and hence respond to God by entering into the arms of His love, receiving His love and loving Him in return, our true life begins. There, enveloped by God’s love, we reject all that is not love and the Spirit of His love is infused into us. We then, in turn, become vessels for God’s love. As we persistently pour His love out to others, we come to experience life as it was always meant to be, we grow to become more and more like Jesus – the perfect expression of God’s love – and we enjoy fullness and abundance of life as it was always meant to be.

True life is life lived in the arms of God’s love for us, with God’s love for others pulsating in us and expressing itself through us to them.

Life application: Which “movement” of this abundant life do I need to surrender to today? Do I need to surrender to His love for me and press deeper into receiving God’s love and loving God? Or do I need to surrender to His longing to express His love into the world through me and deliberately and practically let love flow through me to others today? Or is it both? It is likely to be both.