This post is Day 23 in a series of studies about “1 John”. I strongly suggest you begin with the introduction to this study, please click here to read it.

Feel free to comment below with your own thoughts about each verse and how you will be acting on each thought. Also, if you haven’t yet signed up to receive the notifications of new studies, you can do that today (the form is at the bottom of the page).

1 John – Day 23

Many church-goers go because it is their regular Sunday activity, many out of obligation to parents or spouse. For non-believers, church does not conjure a picture of a loving happy community. It suggests a building where people sit on hard seats, have whispered conversations, and listen to boring messages.

1 John 4:10-12

This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.

The Thought

The church is called to be a loving community totally displaying the love of God. That is the completion that John talks about at the end of today’s verses.

Sadly through the years, much of the church has lost that picture. Many church goers are there because it is their regular Sunday activity. Many are there out of obligation to parents or spouse. For non-believers, the word “church” does not conjure a picture of a loving happy community, rather it suggests a building where people sit on hard seats, have whispered conversations, and listen to a boring message.

Of course that is not true of much of the church today. Things are changing rapidly and we are learning to Be the church rather than just Go to church. But if the word LOVE is not something people associate with us, then we are still failing as Christians.

Jesus came to show us how to love, and in doing so He dined with all sorts of people. He healed them, encouraged them, laughed with them, and cried with them. He lived for people outside His immediate circle of friends.

Action

Ask yourself today if people see you as a personification of LOVE.

Pray that God will help you improve in the areas where you have not been so successful.

Pray for your church to come out of the building and to BE the church that God intended it to be.