Today we shall regress just one verse in First John to discuss a very important component to loving other people. How do we really love others as we have been commanded by God? How do we ever reach the level of love, agape – unconditional love, that Jesus told us to obey? Is there any way to love others, especially those who are different than we, the way the Bible tells us to love them? These are very difficult questions to answer. However, our teacher and loving father in the faith, John the apostle, shares with us the the equipping answer in today's verse which is found in First John chapter four and verse thirteen. He wrote:
Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.
John's proof to us that we live with God and He lives with us is that He has given us of “his Spirit.” The key to loving others as John has been sharing with us throughout this chapter is to have the Spirit of God living within us. God loves us, and God loves others – all others. The only way that we will ever be able to love like God does is to have “His Spirit” living within us. His Spirit must replace ours. His Spirit must take over where we come up short. His Spirit empowers us to love in a manner that we never thought possible.
In the book of Zechariah which is in the Old Testament of the Bible there is a verse in chapter four and verse six that is helpful to us in this matter of loving others. It says:
Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This [is] the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.
In the context of this verse, the Israelites were wondering how they would ever be able to rebuild the temple of God. The task seemed daunting, and humanly there was no way it could ever be done. God's word to Zerubbabel the prophet was that it was “not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit” that this awesome task would be accomplished. In other words there was no human might or power that could accomplish this great feat, but with a super-natural power, God's Spirit, God's power, the task could be completed, and it was.
John the apostle says God has “given us of his Spirit” and if we have received Jesus as our Lord and Savior we now have His Spirit and His power, His super-natural power is living within us to do that which seems impossible – loving others. If we want to be like God we must love everybody, help everybody and forgive everybody, and only by God's loving Spirit will we ever be able to obey that which He has commanded us to do.
Next time we will find out even more about the reason that God sent His Son into the world, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.
Until tomorrow...there is more...
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