Love, love, love, love, love! If there is a theme which resonates throughout the book of 1 John it is love. Though the word love is used throughout Scripture, the Greek word for love used throughout this book is "Agape" This is the strongest word there exists for love. It is to hold another in the highest regard. It is a consuming passion for the well-being of others. It is a love which keeps on going even if the one being loved is unresponsive, unlovable, or unworthy. It is unconditional love. Jesus said in John 15:9-13, "As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love...This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends." In the song by Michael W. Smith, "Here I Am to Worship", a recurring lyric, one worthy to ponder when considering this type of love, is, "I'll never know how much it cost to see my sin upon that cross". Yes, I want to love like Jesus, but when I step back and see it demonstrated by My Savior, how can I not realize how far I am from the example that He set for us so many years ago.

We read in 1 John 13:11, "For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another,". We get a glimpse of what this love should look like in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, "Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails...". This portion of Scripture is so often read at wedding ceremonies, with everyone assembled smiling as they are familiar with this Scripture. Interestingly, everyone present smiling is in total oblivion, not realizing that this level of love was demonstrated by Jesus, but every person sitting in that audience should be cut to the core realizing just how far they are from that example, including the new bride and groom. We read in 1 John 4:11, "Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." One way to put this level of love into practice is in 4:18-19, "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us." Though we might fall far from the mark, He doesn't. With my life committed to Him, I realize that He does indeed, "Agape" love me. I am His and He is mine. He will always take care of me. Whenever trials come my way and fear creeps in, I know that He will never leave me, never stop loving me, and this is independent of how I fare in the trial. His love casts away fear.

It might seem as though I took a negative spin on a seemingly positive book. But this was not the intent. This book simply describes a love which is perfect which we have never achieved. Perfect love has been modeled before us in the Person of Jesus Christ. A level of perfect love that we will never achieve. But this should not discourage us. Using Him as the example to seek to be like, filled with the Holy Spirit, this should move us forward in the process of sanctification, as we become more and more like Jesus. Even when we fail, which we will, His love is perfect, and He lovingly picks us up, brushes us off, and lovingly encourages to continue on the course He has set before us.