Monday Devotional: April 15, 2024

Bible Reading: 1 John 3:16-24 (CEB)

¹⁶ This is how we know love: Jesus laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. ¹⁷ But if someone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but refuses to help—how can the love of God dwell in a person like that? ¹⁸ Little children, let’s not love with words or speech but with action and truth. ¹⁹ This is how we will know that we belong to the truth and reassure our hearts in God’s presence. ²⁰ Even if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts and knows all things. ²¹ Dear friends, if our hearts don’t condemn us, we have confidence in relationship to God. ²² We receive whatever we ask from him because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. ²³ This is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love each other as he commanded us. ²⁴ Those who keep his commandments dwell in God and God dwells in them. This is how we know that he dwells in us, because of the Spirit he has given us.

Some people desire to measure love. “How much do you love me?” is an often-asked question. Some answer, “I love you this much,” and begin to name the ways they show that love. How much does God love us? we may ask, and this passage begins to answer that question for us once again. The writer of this passage believes we measure God’s love for us by what Jesus was willing to do for us. “He laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another.” We read this shepherd theme in today’s scripture. But the passage dispels the notion of only receiving love. True love is not only received, it is shared—especially with those with greater needs. This love consists not only of words but also acts of caring and expressions of assistance.

The person who experiences being truly loved lives in a way that shows love to others, even those not expecting love. The person with true love from God displays the same kind of unconditional love toward all just as Jesus evidenced that agape love toward us. We do not consider refusing the needs of a sister or brother in need. For the writer of First John, that refusal implies that a person does not possess love at all. The scriptural call is to love “in truth and action.”

Another powerful image in this passage is that of our being called “little children.” We see some of the sweetest expressions of love at the hands of innocent children; our call, after all, if we want to enter into God’s reign, is to be childlike in our expressions of love. It may be our childlike love, after all, that is the telling characteristic of belonging to the God of love.

Prayer

God of love, may I show my love more than I speak it. May I touch all in need with gestures of love. Amen.

By Eradio Valverde, Jr. The Upper Room Disciplines 2015, page 125.

Bible Study

Knowing the Shepherd’s Love

Bible Readings: Psalm 23, 1 John 3:16-24

ZOOM Session

Monday, April 15, 2024, 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm.
For Zoom Link, send email to [email protected]

IN PERSON Session

Wednesday, April 17, 2024, 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm
Conference Room, McGee Building