Obey God by Loving Others

John tells readers that anyone who claims to love God and hates others makes a false claim (v. 20). If a believer hates a fellow believer, how can the love of God exist in him or her? If we say we love God, we must also genuinely love others. John points out that Christians can more easily love the people they can see than they can love an invisible God (v. 20). We obey God by loving others as well as Him because He first loved us (vv. 10, 19). Our willingness to obey God’s commandments to love God and love others (v. 21) produces visible acts of love.

Walk in Love

“He has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their Christian brothers and sisters.” 1 John 4:21 (NLT)

For introverts, the thought of spending hours in interpersonal contact helping others can sound exhausting. For extroverts, doing tasks alone in service of others can similarly exhaust. Yet God calls all believers to love others while recognizing the importance of looking after our own well-being. The command for believers to love others sometimes comes at a cost of self-sacrifice, giving up a part of our lives for someone else, and includes putting the interests of others before our own. Believers obey God’s call to love others because we love God.

To love others endlessly means giving of ourselves while expecting nothing in return day after day. The call to live by serving others rather than through lives revolving around ourselves is part of the believer's dying to sin. Dying to sin and living lives of love require patience. The command to love others challenges us to love the difficult people, the unlovely, and those who might seem unlovable. We can love them with warm and meaningful words to touch their hearts. Love does not discriminate based on skin tone, social status, educational background, ethnicity, gender, or marital status. Love calls us to forgive and brings us peace. Christians abiding in God’s love and made righteous before God obey the command to love others by living lives of love for Christians.

Practice For Today

Ask the Spirit to direct you. And look for one person you can love by prioritizing them before yourself. You might allow someone else to have the parking spot closest to the building, take the time to really listen, or let them go ahead of you in a grocery line.

Photo by Mimi Thian on Unsplash.