“No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another,
God lives in us and his love is made complete in us”(1 John 4:12)
The reason we often live a life of reckless abandon for this verse is found in the phrase “one another”. We often hold “others’ flaws” accountable for our failure at love and conclude that loving one another is unachieavable and agonizing. You are right. “One another” implies mutual relationship, and is only attainable when both parties feel the same way about each other. However, note that we don’t need to be burdened to complete the “one another” relationship. When God quesions us, he will not ask, “Are you loving one another?”, instead, he will ask “Are you doing your part in loving others?”. This is the essense of His command, but perhaps we are moving too quick in finding an execuse to distance ourselves away from practicing the Bible’s way of love.
Everybody wants love. However, we often find it challenging to practice love as it is written in the Bible. This is because our own defintiion of love deviates too much from the love taught in the Bible, and the nature of love in the Bible conflicts with our human nature. Love is one of the admirable dispositions and virtues that a human being can be proud of, but such love is being falsely interpreted and manipulated. The biblical love is not attainable by our strength and will alone.
We need God. Only those who stay inside the presence of His love
and have experienced it can truely show the love written in the Bible.
“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and
only Son into the world that we might live through him.”
“Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
(1 John 4:9,11)
Only after you experience the love of God, you will embark on a new journey and hope to live the life of love in the Bible. Those who desire to live the life of love in the Bible will steer their life towards the love of God. This is because good intention and power only stem from this love of God. So the ones who choose to live the life of love in the Bible will be fully immersed in the love of God and His joy will be poured out on them abundantly.
Then God’s blessing will take you on a new path.
From Choi, Jiwon.