“Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
God is love. What I understand this to mean is that God the Father and God the Son love each other with an infinite, all-powerful, and all-encompassing love for one another. And this love between the two persons is the person of the Holy Spirit as we saw in Romans 5:5. This is the Spirit that is given to each and every believer from the moment of saving faith.
And it is because the Spirit is the love of God, and the Spirit has been given to us, the Christian loves with God’s love. This is why the apostle says that anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. But we who have the Spirit, now can love God and others. Now believer, because you have the Spirit of God, you have the very love that God has for Himself in you.
Of course, sin remains. We live in a broken and cursed world. Our bodies break down and eventually die. So now we get tastes of the love of God. But some day soon, we will experience God’s presence, the fullness of God’s love without sin or curse. There will be fullness of His joy and pleasures forevermore! But we have the Spirit now such that Paul says, the Love of God has been poured out into our hearts. And because of this we have hope enough to love God and others today. So our worship is true worship because we worship God in Spirit and truth. We really experience God’s presence, we really experience God’s love, all in the person and work of the Holy Spirit
1 John 4:8
1 John 4:8
“Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
God is love. What I understand this to mean is that God the Father and God the Son love each other with an infinite, all-powerful, and all-encompassing love for one another. And this love between the two persons is the person of the Holy Spirit as we saw in Romans 5:5. This is the Spirit that is given to each and every believer from the moment of saving faith.
And it is because the Spirit is the love of God, and the Spirit has been given to us, the Christian loves with God’s love. This is why the apostle says that anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. But we who have the Spirit, now can love God and others. Now believer, because you have the Spirit of God, you have the very love that God has for Himself in you.
Of course, sin remains. We live in a broken and cursed world. Our bodies break down and eventually die. So now we get tastes of the love of God. But some day soon, we will experience God’s presence, the fullness of God’s love without sin or curse. There will be fullness of His joy and pleasures forevermore! But we have the Spirit now such that Paul says, the Love of God has been poured out into our hearts. And because of this we have hope enough to love God and others today. So our worship is true worship because we worship God in Spirit and truth. We really experience God’s presence, we really experience God’s love, all in the person and work of the Holy Spirit