Human Love At It’s Best Is Underrated

1 John 4:21
And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

This chapter of the Bible makes startling statements about love. This chapter begins by telling us not to believe every spirit but to test every spirit, 1 John 4:1. This chapter tells us that believers overcome by having in them a greater power than the power in the world, 1 John 4:4. In verse eight we are told that God is love. God does not just encourage us to love He is love. God does not just love us, He is love. That God and love are one and the same thing. Indeed love at its best is underrated!

We think of love as a good feeling. We think of love as an important factor in relationships. We think of love and romance. We think of love and its presentation in soap operas, movies, novels, music, and news. We think of love at weddings. We think of love as Jesus dies of the cross. But, we least expected that it would stretch to the point where God and love are one and the same thing. Indeed, love as we know it has been underrated!

God is love. Not love as we may be limited to know. While God is love, we worship God not love. Love and God cannot be separated, yet we worship God not love. While God is eternal, we worship God and not eternity. God is love but love is not God. It is impossible to separate what love is from who God is. This is love in its highest form that the human mind will forever study and progressively comprehend but never fully comprehend. With this revelation of love and its association with God, indeed love is underrated!

Another startling point that is clearly emphasized in this chapter is that we must love one another. While divine love and God being love may be hard to comprehend, we are now ushered to human love. God has given us the ability to love others and be loved by others. We at least have some understanding of loving and being loved by fellow human beings. This human love that we understand and talk about is also addressed in this chapter. This chapter tells us that our love for God can be rendered irrelevant if we do not love one another, 1 John 4:20. Isn’t that a very high rating of human love? Indeed, human love at its best is underrated!

This chapter commands us to love one another, 1 John 4:11. We ought to love one another. We must love one another. It is not a suggestion or a request, it is a command, an order that must be fulfilled or we are declared rebels. If we do not love one another, we are rebels. Rebelling against God. Rebels, yes, rebels. You don’t love your neighbor? You have rebelled against God. You do not love your relative, or parent, or former spouse? You are a rebel, acting against God. You do not love your employer or employee or customer? You are a rebel. You are a heretic. You deserve to be kicked out of the fellowship of believers. You are a fraud, a fake, masquerading as a believer but championing your own course. This is how serious human love is rated in this chapter. Indeed, human love at its best is underrated!

If God lives in you then it will be demonstrated by you loving others, 1 John 4:12. If you love others you have the Holy Spirit in you. Not when you speak in tongues. Not when you keep the Sabbath or preach and sing powerfully. When you love others, God lives in you. God lives in those who are truly converted. If you are truly converted, it will be known, not by mastery of doctrine and latest prophecies, but by your love for others. Yes, even love for enemies. We are busy thinking the best Christians are those who really know Bible stuff and make long complex prayers, but the Bible says, it is all exposed in how they relate with others. They must humanly love other human beings. Indeed, human love at its best is underrated!

Matthew 5:44
But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

Matthew 5:45
so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

We must humanly love even our enemies. That love will identify us as children of God. If you can’t humanly love, you have no relationship with God. Human beings love in a human way. That is what God expects from us. We are not angels, we can’t love like angels. We are not God we can’t love like God. We should love one another in the human way of love. Failure to love means we do not belong to God. Human love at its best has been underrated!

How is your relationship with others? Do you love others? Love is not hidden or theorized it is demonstrated. Have you demonstrated love to others? Are there times you are reluctant to express love? Do you now realize that is rebellion against God?

Help me, dear God, help me to love even the unloveable. Give me capacity and ability. Forgive me for anyone I never demonstrated love to. May my love for You be demonstrated in how I love others, in Jesus’ name, Amen!

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