Compelling Love

God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.  God is love, and the source of all true love.  God is truth, and by knowing Him we have eternal life.  Light, love and truth abide together in those who walk with God.  John’s first epistle describes walking in the light by the grace of Jesus Christ.

1 John 1  (NKJV)
Fellowship with Him and One Another
⁵ This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. ⁶ If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. ⁷ But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

The eternal Word of God, the Son of God who was with the Father before the world began, is the source of all life and light, including our very consciousness.

John 1 (NKJV)
The Eternal Word
¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. ⁴ In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. ⁵ And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

The  Word became flesh and dwelt among us.  Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

¹⁴ And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

¹⁶ And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. ¹⁷ For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 

God sent His light and truth into the world through Jesus Christ.  Jesus is the ultimate answer to David’s prayer in Psalm 43.

Psalm 43 (NKJV)
³ Oh, send out Your light and Your truth!
Let them lead me;
Let them bring me to Your holy hill
And to Your tabernacle.
⁴ Then I will go to the altar of God,
To God my exceeding joy;
And on the harp I will praise You,
O God, my God.
⁵ Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God;
For I shall yet praise Him,
The help of my countenance and my God.

1 John 4 describes knowing and abiding in God’s love through Jesus Christ.

1 John 4 (NKJV)
Knowing God Through Love
⁷ Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸ He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.  ⁹ In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. ¹⁰ In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. ¹¹ Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

Abiding with God Through Love
¹² No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. ¹³ By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. ¹⁴ And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. ¹⁵ Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. ¹⁶ And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

In His high priestly prayer in John 17, Jesus declares that to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent is to have eternal life.  Near the end of this prayer, He prays that those who believe in Him will share in the unity, glory and love that He had with the Father before the world was.

John 17 (NKJV)
¹Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, ² as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. ³ And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. ⁴ I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. ⁵ And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.

²⁰ “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; ²¹ that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. ²² And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: ²³ I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.

David Krause, dhkrause@neteze.com, 9/2/2018, https://compellinglove.net/   

Photo credits:
(1)  http://www.bibleverseimages.com/bible-quote-8.htm
(2)  https://inspirationandhealing.blogspot.com/2015/10/bible-quotes-john-117.html
(3)  https://www.amazingfacts.org/news-and-features/scripture-pictures/scripture-pictures-by-verse/verse/e/30611/t/1-john-4-7
(4) https://www.deviantart.com/bible-quote/art/John-17-3-Daily-Bible-Verse-571492829