“And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” (1Jo 4:16 AV)
Perhaps the LORD is following up from yesterday. Yesterday, we discovered that it is ok to live in the reality that we are little children. We always will be. Our Father is so great that we will never be anything more. We learned that it is ok to be comfortable with the child/father relationship we have with our Creator. We were challenged to abide in Him as a child would abide in the security and affirmation of his or her parent. Now we see a follow-up truth. One cannot dwell with God unless he also dwells in His love. To disbelieve that God loves us unconditionally also means we cannot dwell with Him. The fault is not His. The fault is ours. If we are not living in the love of God, it is not because He has removed it. If we do not dwell in His love, it is because we refuse to live there. We know there is a doctrinal aspect to this verse. John is speaking of simple salvation. If we accept the love of God as manifested by Calvary’s cross, then we dwell in love. As far as salvation goes, anyway. What we fail to see is the practical. John does not limit this truth to salvation alone. Rather, this truth also extends to extra-salvatory love.
In a child’s life, there are stages of separation from the love of their parents that are part of the process of growing. As a toddler, the child will pull away the shoulder and exercise independence as a way to define who and what they will be. They pull away. But not very far. When threatened, needy, or insecure, they run to Mom and Dad for comfort and affirmation. Then, there are the adolescent years. When a child hits his or her teens, parents become a bit of embarrassment. The child distances himself because he is too afraid of what others would think. This distance is rather far. It often takes time and life to draw the child back to his parents. One pleasure of weddings is seeing estranged parents and children reconcile over a major event of life. Grandchildren come, and the child and parent become closer than ever before. The parent has never moved. He or she remains the steady rock that they have always been. It is the maturity process of the child that strains and repairs this relationship. A parent's love is never severed. It is up to the child to come as avail themselves of that love.
With the saints, faith is the major issue. God never leaves nor forsakes. He never removes his love. It may be manifested differently. Circumstances of life dictate how God loves us. But the fact that we have everlasting love cannot be denied. I have noticed that the lack of faith in the love of God is becoming a widespread problem. We simply have a hard time trusting that God could love someone such as us. There is a problem with that. Mainly, if we do not accept and dwell in the love of God, then we do not dwell with God. To accept the love of God is to accept God’s presence. When we do not accept God’s love, we are behaving like that adolescent who has deep doubts regarding His parent’s love. The solution is very simple. We must accept the fact of God’s everlasting love. We much choose to dwell there. We cannot run from it. We cannot allow our self-hatred to drive us from it. God loves us no matter what. When we come to that conclusion and learn to trust it, then and only then do we truly begin to dwell with God in a fulness that can come no other way.
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