Most of us have spent a lot of energy trying to earn love. Say the right thing, show up on time, keep everyone happy, and maybe then we’re worth loving. It’s a tiring way to live, and guess what? It’s actually backwards. Love was never something we had to earn in the first place.
In 1 John 4:19, the Apostle John writes it plainly: “We, though, are going to love, love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first.”
That one verse sums up everything John has just spent twelve verses explaining. For John, and for every believer since, love is the clearest picture of who God is. Not a feeling. Not something we work up on our own. Love is God’s nature. It’s the evidence of a real relationship with Him. So much so that John says if we don’t love, we don’t actually know God, no matter what we claim.
And God didn’t leave that love as an idea. He showed it. He sent His only Son into the world, not because we loved Him first, but because He loved us, and He sent Jesus as the sacrifice that would clear away our sin and repair what it had broken in our relationship between us and Him.
Because of that, John says something remarkable in verses 17 and 18: we don’t have to live afraid anymore. Not afraid of death, not afraid of judgment. A life still gripped by that kind of fear is a life love hasn’t fully reached yet. But Jesus’ love changes that. Through Him, God gives us His own Spirit to live in us, and that Spirit is what forms a steady, deep, real relationship between us and God. Out of that, we get to live free. Whole. Mature. Not scrambling to prove ourselves worthy.
And that brings us back to verse 19. Because God loved us first, through Jesus, we’re now able to love others the same way. Our love for people isn’t something we generate on our own either. It’s rooted in what Christ already did for us. When we love others well, we’re not just being nice. We’re reflecting Him. That’s often the only way people will ever see what God’s love actually looks like, through what they see in us.
This week, take some time to read 1 John 4:7-19 out loud. Slow down with it. Ask God’s Spirit to help you really take it in, not just understand it, but feel it. And as you do, ask the Holy Spirit to guide you into ways that you can daily demonstrate the love of Jesus Christ to others.