Perfect Love

Perfect love has to do with His love for us. Yet in the epistle of John he discusses the commandment of the Lord. That is to love one another.

John 15:17 These things I command you, that you love one another.

The notion that it is okay to love God, who you cannot see, and hate your brother (or hold anything against him) who you do see is unscriptural and anti-kingdom.

Love must be perfected amongst us.

1 John 4:4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
1 John 4:5 They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them.
1 John 4:6 We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
1 John 4:8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
1 John 4:9 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.
1 John 4:10 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.
1 John 4:11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
1 John 4:12 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.
1 John 4:13 By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.
1 John 4:14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world.
1 John 4:15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
1 John 4:16 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.
1 John 4:17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.
1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.
1 John 4:19 We love Him because He first loved us.

Make it your goal for 2013 and beyond for love to be perfected in you. That is love for each other.

By this we are to be known.

John 13:35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

If we have not let His love for us change our attitude for those around us, then we have fallen short of the Glory that has been made available to us.

It is a commandment and He has already demonstrated this for us.

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

How do I remember love? I remember how He saved me and loved me at my worst and never gave up on me. I owe nothing less to others then that which I have freely received. I will have boldness in the day of Judgment, not because I was perfect in everything. I will have boldness because I have purposed in my life to love others as myself.