1 John 4:12 --- No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
As a Christian, I've heard it said, "You may be the only Jesus someone sees." or "You may be the only Bible someone reads.". Today's verse reinforces this with its opening.
Through the power of algorithms, Facebook showed me a funny meme last night. It made me laugh quite loudly. So, the algorithm did its job and enticed me to click on this random page to seek out other funny things. As a sidenote this was while waiting in the car for my son to get off work… I don't have problem… really. Okay joking aside, it took me to a group for atheists who post funny memes. Most of the memes about how stupid Christians are.
After my initial confusion as to why the algorithm would send me here, I noticed how many likes and comments these posts were getting. We're talking in the hundreds. I started looking at comments, reading each one and its subsequent replies.
Want to know what broke my heart as I read comment after comment?
Almost every single one of them came from people who said they used to be a Christian or were raised in church and found there is no real love in Christianity today. It's just another religion where no one truly cares about each other. Many said they were drawn to Christianity because of the teachings of Jesus but quickly found the churches today didn't live it out among themselves. It was just another feel good, self-centered religion where people put on fake smiles, spoke about love, but didn't actually love each other like Jesus taught.
For me, I've been studying verse by verse in 1 John here and it just keeps hammering over and over and over that God is love (agape, selfless, sacrificial love) and we are to love (agape) our brothers and sisters. We are commanded to. We are obligated to. We are duty bound to. God is love. He is the very love (agape) people hunger for and we not only have access to Him, which He is that love, we should have it/Him abiding in us.
Someone may argue these atheists didn't really give it a chance. They rejected it. They just didn't see it. In the end it doesn't really matter because people's perception is their reality and for these people were hurt and angry, not because of anything taught about Jesus, but because the people they were surrounded by did not reflect those teachings in how they loved one another. I'm talking hundreds of comments, all echoing the same thing. Sure, there could be a million more reasons why, but this was the theme I saw at 10:20 PM, sitting in a Chick-Fil-A parking lot.
Then today I go to the next verse to study and read "No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us." It just broke my heart to think how many professing Christians have a destinational religion, versus a transforming relationship with Jesus. Destinational, just meaning they go to church, they go home from church. There are no real connections or relationships.
What's the point of all this?
Well, it's not to condemn anyone or point fingers anywhere. It just broke my heart seeing so many people who weren't hating on Jesus, they just didn't personally see or feel the love He taught among the people professing to be His followers and children of God.
Just think on the fact that Jesus Himself commands us to love one another as He loves us. (John 13:34 & John 15:12). Jesus also says everyone will know we are His disciples by our love for one another. (John 13:35).
Then you have 1 John and it goes all out to command and stress loving our brothers and sisters. Also, how it's an indicator of if God abides in us. This is a really big deal. Many of these atheists noted how Christians feed the homeless, do outreach for communities, but they quickly pointed out, there are many non-Christian foundations that do the same.
So, what makes us different?
It should be our love for one another, and that love should be the very Agape, selfless, sacrificial love of God being in us!
Just something deep to think about today. Be the Berean and get into your Word. Learn what His voice sounds like. Learn His truths. See what He has to tell you about 1 John 4:12 today.
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