Relationships/Fellowship

Noticing God Devotion #4 Relationships/Fellowship I John 4:7-11

This devotion is designed to guide you through a passage of Scripture related to our practice for the month. Read the passage and choose one or both of the exercises to complete with God. Following the study of Scripture there are a series of questions (“Reflecting on the Month”) that ask you to reflect on your interaction with God over the past months emphasis. Set aside a quiet time to be in the Word, and to reflect on how you have noticed God more clearly.

WARMING UP Before you begin, get in a comfortable position, relax your body, and spend a few moments in silence. If distractions interrupt your silence, turn each one over to God as they come, and return to silence before Him.

THE PASSAGE (I John 4:7-11) 7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (NIV)

7-10 My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can’t know him if you don’t love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God.11-12 My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love! (The Message)

Notes on the Passage:  John is describing God-initiated, God-inspired, God-imitating love; the Greek word for love is agape which is divine love, completely unselfish, non-reciprocal in its expectations  This love is a verb, an action word; God has shown love in action (see John 3:16; I John 3:16,18; Romans 5:8)  God’s love and His call to love is radical love, unlike the world’s definition of love (see Matt. 5:43-48; John 15:13; Col. 3:12-14)  Love is a choice, a decision, an act of the will; God determined to send Jesus to die as evidence of His love; when we love, we are aligning ourselves with the character of God in deliberate obedience and surrender to His Spirit  Do not mistake agape love for ‘anything goes’ kind of love; God still holds those He loves accountable for sin; agape love does not excuse or condone evil, but challenges the one who is loved toward holiness and offers complete forgiveness

Questions for Reflection: 1) Re-read the passage. The first and most important question to ask yourself is whether or not you really believe that God loves you completely and unconditionally. What obstacles exist in your own thinking that hinder you from fully accepting the truth of God’s enormous love for you? 2) I Corinthians 13:4-8 fleshes out agape love. What does it reveal to you about God’s love nature and how that nature is expressed in relationship? As you read Paul’s description of God’s love lived out, which aspect is the hardest for you to believe in terms of God’s love for you? Which one is the hardest for you to live out in relationship with others? Surrender that in prayer to God now. 3) In his book, Blue Like Jazz, author Donald Miller gives voice to agape love in this excerpt of a husband’s love commitment to his sleeping wife with whom he has been in conflict: “I will love you like God, because of God, mighted by the power of God. I will stop expecting your love, demanding your love, trading for your love, gaming for your love. I will simply love. I am giving myself to you, and tomorrow I will do it again…God risked Himself on me. I will risk myself on you. And together, we will learn to love…” Who is God putting on your heart to love with agape love? Pray that by His power and through His grace, you will be able to feel the love you determine to act upon in obedience to Him. 4) Is there a ‘difficult’ person in your life? How do John’s words apply to the relationship between you and this person?

Further meditation on the passage: C. S. Lewis comments on the decision to love with God-like love: “The rule for all of us is perfectly simple. Do not waste time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him…”

We are tempted to think of loving and existing in relationships based on feelings or chemistry-or even on how the other person treats or responds to us. How much we love others most directly reflects the measure to which we have accepted God’s love for ourselves. Embrace His love for you so that you can express His love to others.

REFLECTING ON THE MONTH Use the questions below to reflect on the time you have spent with God during the monthly practice.  How did you notice God as you sought to exercise agape love in relationships?  In what ways did your feelings toward a difficult person change as you acted upon love?  How did your project choice influence your understanding of God’s love for you?  What new insights did you gain about the character of God and how He works through you?  How have your relationships or your perspective on your relationships changed through this exercise?