Love God by loving His children.

1 John 4:21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also. We continue to track with the apostle John in his reasoning for explaining that faith and love are the evidences of the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of those who are from God. In the previous verse, we were encouraged that to love our brothers and sisters is how we love the invisible God. John also made it clear that loving God and hating His people is an impossible contradiction. In today’s verse we learn why loving God and hating His people are not compatible. The one who loves God also obeys Him, and God commanded His disciples to love one another. Hopefully you remember John 13:34-35. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” Jesus repeated this commandment in John 15:12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.” In John 14:21, Jesus said, “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me.” Now we can easily make the connection that John made. Jesus, who is God, gave us a commandment to love one another. So if we love Him, we should love our brothers and sisters in Christ because loving them is to love Him. When we live to love with Jesus, we are loving Jesus by loving His own with Him. Bottom line: It’s all about Jesus! He has loved us so we could love Him and each other for the glory of God. Hopefully you will have opportunities today to love God by loving others. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you so you can live to love with Jesus for God’s glory.