Saturday 14th February – 1 John 4:7-21 ‘The Source of Love’

A reflection for Valentine’s Day:

In 2016, a new app was launched: ‘what3words’. The app divides the world into tiny squares 3m wide by 3m long and creates a unique 3-word name for each one. It wasn’t long before pretty much every serious walker or traveller put this app on their phones – if you get lost or have an accident, you just send your 3-word location and a rescue team can pinpoint your location exactly, and not have to comb a mile of wilderness trying to find you. It literally saves lives.

The world defined in 3 unique words. And here in this passage, we discover three words which condense all of the glorious wisdom of Scripture into three fundamental words, which take us to the heart of life itself: God is love.

But let’s be clear as to what kind of love is being described here. It’s not romantic love, or patriotic loyalty, or even based around things that we like or enjoy – though it can include bits of all of those. It is bigger and deeper than that. It is love defined as selfless giving.

This kind of love is Christ-centred (v9). It is also Christ initiated: ‘This is love,’ John says in v10, ‘not that we loved God but that he loved us.’ So often we start from human images of love and work back to God. But the deepest form of love comes from God, and we can only truly find it in him. God loved before we did – and as we receive this divine kind of love, then we find capacity to share that love with others. As we receive, so we give – otherwise the well runs dry.

This is why we have to centre ourselves in Christ, the heart of God’s self-giving love – as we do that, so his love fills us, and flows out of us into others: v17 ‘This is how love is made complete among us… in this world we are like Jesus.’

And not only this, the power of fear in our life is reduced: ‘there is no fear in divine love – perfect love drives out fear.’ (v18) To abide in this healing, cleansing, divine love helps us to live through that same love, and not the fears that whisper in our ear. We no longer need to be right, or important, or liked, or needed. We can simply give ourselves in love, as our Lord directs.

Today, let’s re-centre ourselves by inviting this awesome, self-giving divine love, this love of Christ, to enter our lives afresh and make us whole. And may God grant us grace to overflow in this love: back to God, and out to others. Amen.