Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
1 John 4:7-8

John is called the Apostle Jesus loved. He was not only loved, but he loved both God and God’s people. And he not only exhorted the Church to love God, but to love one another.

In the five short chapters, containing only 105 verses, the word love appears 36 times in 24 verses. John speaks of the love for the brethren/one another 14 times. Twice he writes that love for one another is a command (3:23, 4:21). He says to love, not merely in words, but in deeds (3:17-18). He says we are to love one another to the extent that we lay down our lives for our brothers (3:16). He says whoever does not love his brother “abides in death.” (3:14) Twice he says if we do not love our brothers, we do not know or love God (4:8, 4:20). More could be pointed out, but you get the point.

What do we make of this? How about that love—not only for God, but for one another—is an essential mark of the truly converted? How about that love for one another is not the right answer on a written test, but that the test is in how we serve one another—even, and especially, when it is inconvenient?

This same John who wrote the Revelation, wrote to the church in Ephesus (Rev.2), that no matter how theologically right a person (or a church) is, Jesus has something against those who abandon love.

Dear ones, let us take this seriously. Let us examine ourselves and our self-sacrificial love for one another. Do we have any confessions to make? Any repenting to do?

Let us be people indelibly marked by love!

And let us renew our love for one another at church this Lord’s Day!