God’s Love is Perfect and Should be Seen in Us.

God’s love is perfect according to the Apostle John. What does that mean for all of us who are deeply flawed and imperfect?

Are We Difficult to Love?

All of us have met people that are really difficult to love. They can be so frustrating to deal with that we do our utmost to avoid them. Yet, they seem to keep popping up in our lives, and we find our grace and mercy are stretched to the limit. These types of people can be exhausting and draining, causing us to question why we would want to interact with them at all.

However, is it possible that we can have the same kind of effect on others? Are we unlovable at times? Humbly, we have to admit that we can be unforgiving, arrogant, selfish, jealous, vindictive, and abusive.

The perfect, holy God we serve is not like this. He loves us unconditionally, despite our failings. God’s love is truly astonishing and almost incomprehensible. But if we are to be true followers of Christ, we need to learn to love like God does. Otherwise we may be in danger of missing out on grasping the opportunities for the love of God to be seen in our lives.

The Love That Comes From God

The Apostle John, one of the closest followers of Jesus, understood what it was to love and be loved. He said,

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. I John 4:7

This does not mean that anyone who shows love is a Christ follower. While we can all demonstrate love to our children, our spouses, and other family members, the deepest, most transformative kind of love comes from an understanding and experience of God’s love. The love that John is talking about comes from spiritual rebirth and a deep and intimate knowledge of God. God’s love teaches us to love the unlovely – like ourselves!

John went on to make a point that is very difficult to swallow for those of us who consider ourselves to be Christ followers. He said,

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. I John 4:8

Before we go pointing our fingers at others, and lets face it, that’s the first thing we tend to do, we have to ask ourselves if it is possible that we are guilty of failing to love others. John wants us to look internally. The more deeply we examine our hearts, the more honest we are with ourselves, we come to the realization that there we are often guilty of being unloving.

Failure to Love

When we fail to love others, we fail to truly understand God, and we prevent the power of His love from working through us. As John suggests, if we cannot love our brothers and sisters in Christ, those who share fellowship in Christ’s body with us, what hope is there for us to love others?

Perhaps we think that someone has to change before we can love them. We think, “If only they were more…” – fill in the blank depending on the individual who springs to mind!

Our heads may be full of questions about their motives and intentions. We may find their personality grating and annoying. Perhaps they don’t take care of their personal hygiene and appearance. Maybe they have hurt us some way in the past. Perhaps they have hurt someone close to us. The list of reasons that we can conjure up for choosing not to love someone is almost endless. But our reasons for choosing not to love are without excuse. They are not Christlike and are a manifestation of our imperfection.

Perfect Love

In contrast, we see that God’s love is perfect. It is always perfect, because God is love. God’s love is pure and shows no fear. (I John 4:18) If we allow it to, it drives out all the fears that might prevent us showing love to others. If our love is unconditional, like God’s love for us, it is never reliant on the response that we get when we choose to love. Our reason for showing love should not be based on how we might feel or how someone might react. John teaches that,

We love because he first loved us.

We don’t choose to love because an individual is lovable. We don’t choose to love because of how we imagine the recipient of our love responds to us. We love first, because God loved us first.

If we choose not to love because we are afraid of rejection, ridicule or some other undesirable response, we miss the opportunity to love like God loves.

God did not wait for us to become attractive to Him in some way before He loved us. He did not wait for us to turn from our blind and blinkered viewpoint of Him. He loved first. He loved us from the start. In fact He loved us before we were even born. (Psalm 139:13-16)

Loving Others Proves God’s Existence

Some may question God’s existence. Some may wonder whether He is real. However, when we allow God’s love to flow through us, we are expressing God in a tangible way. Many are attracted to God, not because of a well won argument for His existence but because of the loving actions of Christ followers. John reminded his readers that,

In this world we are like Jesus. ( I John 4:17)

This begs the question, “What kind of Jesus do we want people to see?” Do we want them to see an unloving, arrogant, unforgiving, so called follower of Christ? Why would anyone be drawn to a skewed and distorted version of Christ?