EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/24/2025 6:29 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 “Perfect Love And The Christian’s Confidence in
Judgment”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
1 John 4:17-21
Message of the verses: “17 By this, love is
perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment;
because as He is, so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts
out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected
in love. 19 We love, because He first loved us. 20 If someone says,
"I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who
does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not
seen. 21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God
should love his brother also.”
The first thing that I want to say is Praise the
Lord for my wife’s successful procedure that she had done this afternoon (Ohio
Time), and I truly am thankful for how this worked out. I am thankful for people around the world who
prayed for her, it means so much to us.
I
have decided to complete this section by quoting from John MacArthur’s
commentary.
“The
apostle repeats his warning (cf. 2:4, 9; 3:10, 17; 4:8) that anyone who claims
to love God but does not love others is a deceiver: If someone says, "I
love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not
love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. It is absurd to claim to love the invisible
God but at the same time not show love to His people. John counters that hypocritical notion with a
closing command: And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves
God should love his brother also.
Brotherly love seeks nothing in return; instead it unconditionally
forgives (cf. Matt. 18:21-22), bears others’ burdens (Gal. 6:2), and sacrifices
to meet their needs (Acts 20:35; Phil. 2:3-4).
Yet it is also a righteous love that tolerates neither false doctrine
nor habitual sin (1 Tom. 5:20; cf. 2 Thess. 3:15).
“God’s
perfect love is a blessing for believers to know and a joy for them to manifest
to others. Although it enhances and
enriches the emotional love they have for other people, perfect love far
transcends any kind of feeling the world might experience. It is a complete, mature love that reflects
the essence of God and the work of Christ and flows through believers to
anybody with a need (3:17; Matt. 25:34-40; 2 Cor. 8:1-7; 9:7-15; James 1:27;
cf. Matt. 5:16; Acts 9:36; Titus 3:8), especially others in the family of God
(Gal. 6:2, 10; cf. 1 Tim 5:8; Heb. 6:9-10).
This love, which has characterized the triune God from eternity past, is
also the mark of His children (John 13:35).
Because this love so clearly comes from Him, those who love like Him can
be assured that He is their Father. As
the hymn ‘I Am His, and He Is Mine’ so aptly expresses:
Loved
with everlasting love, let by grace that love to know;
Gracious Spirit from above,
Thou has taught me it is so!
O, this full and perfect
pace! O, this transport all divine!
In a love which cannot
cease, I am His, and He is mine.
2/25/2025 6:45 PM
No comments:
Post a Comment