Having reflected, over the last couple of days, on the unconditional quality of God’s love for us we now come upon some statements in John’s letter that may seem to contradict this. John says that anyone who does not obey God is not his child! John is not, however, showing us how we gain or lose God’s love. He is simply giving us a way of assessing whether we have received God’s love or not. It is impossible to receive God’s love and not be compelled to love others as God loves them. This doesn’t make God’s love conditional. It doesn’t mean that we earn God’s love by loving others. Rather, hatred or even indifference toward our fellow man is simply a sign that we have not received the love that God wants to freely give us. As we come to know that love more and more it changes the way we see other people. It is impossible for it not to change us. This highlights the fact that it is not enough to know about God’s love. We must know his love from within. We must surrender ourselves to his embrace, entrusting ourselves wholly to him. When we do this God takes hold of our lives by his Holy Spirit. This is how God embraces us: by filling us with his Spirit who testifies to our spirits how much he loves us (Romans 8:16). This is a life changing experience and if our lives have not changed then we might well question whether we have been willing to receive this free gift.
Surrender yourself to God today.
Read 1 John 3:7-24
