Tuesday, May 19, 2015

A Helpful Infection

 

[Graphic of a sign]


“Dear friends, since God so loved us,
we also ought to love one another.”
—1 John 4:11

To learn that we were carrying something horrible within us, such as the deadly Ebola virus, would be frightening news.

In contrast, to learn that we carry within us a helpful “infection” that could bring new life, hope, and salvation to a needy and dying world would be spectacularly good news.

Notice what the Apostle John writes in 1 John 4:11-17:

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.

This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.

If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.God is love.

Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.

So, not only do we become carriers of the life-transforming “infection” of God’s love, we actually become like Jesus to a needy world because the Holy Spirit lives within us.

What better news could we receive as we go out into a new day?

 

Copyright © 2015 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.