God is love...as seen in Jesus Christ

As I get caught up this morning on our readings in 1-3 John I was struck again by the often quoted passage in 1 John 4:8, "But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love" (NLT, emphasis mine). If we heard it once, we have probably heard it a thousand times...God is love. And in our world today, we NEED to hear this a thousand times.

But I was also struck by a passage in the chapter before, 1 John 3:23-24 says, "And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us. Those who obey God's commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us" (NLT, emphasis mine).

In our culture today, we so often hear "God is love" and often this phrase is said with a New Age, Pluralistic, "all roads lead to God" sort of tone and meaning. God, the amorphous how-ever-we-want-to-define-him-sort-of-God is the God often referenced when it is said "God is love."

Along with that phrase "God is love" we so often hear "let's just all get along and love each other." Again, it is a nebulous sort of statement that ranks up there with "peace, love, recycle." It's become a buzz phrase and rightly so as, again, it's a phrase we need to be reminded of a thousand times in our broken and fallen world.

But what I found interesting about this passage in 1 John 3:23 is that it is grounded in the fact, and belief, that this "God" came in a flesh and blood form in Jesus Christ!  "And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us." We are to believe, and confess our belief, in Jesus Christ who "is the visible image of the invisible God" as Colossians 1:15 states.

The statement "God is love" is rooted in this visible, skin and bone representation of Jesus Christ who demonstrated, through his death on the cross, what it truly means "to love one another."

This Advent Season as we celebrate and look forward to the coming of Emmanuel, God with us, God with skin and bones, may we remember that the buzz phrases of "God is love" and "love one another" are grounded and based on this Emmanuel who was born to a Virgin in the backwater town of Bethlehem.

God's grace and peace to you!