Verse: 1 John 2:9-11
9 If anyone claims to be in the light but hates his brother, he is still in the darkness. 10 Whoever loves his brother remains in the light, and there is no cause of stumbling in him. 11 But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness. He does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. (BSB)
Devotion
A line from a Don Henley song always sticks with me: “How can love survive in such a graceless age?” While this is a good question, a line from another song also sticks with me: “When all the good I’m doing for you may come in disguise, then look in My eyes, notice all My love for you.” Love is from God. God is love. Love always survives—even in a graceless age.
What is love? Is it a feeling?( Is “love” a noun?) Or, is love a call to action? (Is “love” a verb?) The “key” to understanding God’s love “is to know that this love (the Greek word agape) is not so much a matter of emotion as it is of doing things for the benefit of another person, that is, having an unselfish concern for another and a willingness to seek the best for another.” “The one who loves and unselfishly seeks the best for his [believing] brother lives in the Light, and in him there is no occasion for stumbling or offense [he does not hurt the cause of Christ or lead others to sin].”
I am convicted when I insert my name below (sigh). Try this at home:
[Insert your name here] always:
- Rejoices with the truth
- Keeps every confidence
- Believes all things (i.e., gives others the benefit of the doubt)
- Hopes all things
- Endures all things
[Insert your name here] is:
- Patient
- Kind
Love [Insert your name here] is not:
- Jealous
- Arrogant
- Provoked
Love [Insert your name here] does not:
- Brag
- Act disgracefully (is not rude)
- Seek [my] own benefit
- Keep an account of a wrong suffered
- Rejoice in unrighteousness
- Fail
A “graceless” age is coming. We will have each other, the love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit; yet, those who hate their brother will not know where they are going, because darkness has blinded their eyes. “[T]he love of the great body of people will grow cold because of the multiplied lawlessness and iniquity, but he who endures to the end will be saved.” (Matthew 24:12-13)
“Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.” (1 John 4:7)
“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket — safe, dark, motionless, airless — it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.” (CS Lewis, The Four Loves, Geoffrey Bles, London, 1960)
Prayer
Lord, the call to love is sobering and difficult, as well as the road less traveled. Daily we seek the grace to live according to love, to love those who spitefully use us, to ask Your forgiveness when we fail. Please work in us the willingness to get back up and to keep trying to love.
Author: Tanny Higgins
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