Bible Verse of the Day Thursday June 25th 2020

1 John 4:8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

The Pharisees and other Jewish leaders had an extreme borderline religious conviction. They were precise and dogmatic concerning all aspects of the Mosaic Law, what people could eat, when and where it could and could not be eaten. When travel was forbidden and how far one could travel on the Sabbath. The hypocrisy of their superior attitude had the misfortune of creating an in-crowd and an out-crowd. The situation became worse as the in-crowd became superficially judgmental of the out crowd. There have been many people that have been completely turned away from Christianity today by uncaring, insensitive, unapproachable, and distant people that use Christianity as a shield and cover for a prideful and superior attitude. 

When the joy of Christ Jesus gets lost in the clouds of worldliness and materialism, some will look for surrogate methods of differentiating themselves from the ones to be considered fleshly and worldly. Jesus was not pleased with the hypocrisy of Pharisees, the Sadducees, and other Jewish leaders as He is not pleased by the duplicity of a world based Christianity today. When the people asked Jesus what God’s Law was all about, He said, love God and love people (Matthew 22:36-40).  The Apostle Paul said that if He could speak in every language know to humankind but did not have a love for God and people in His heart; he was but a clanging cymbal (1 Corinthians 13:1).

The Apostle John is not characterizing the idea of love in this verse, but the sheer fact and truth of love itself. The one described in this verse that does not have love lacks an intimately close relationship with Christ Jesus and is a Christian in name only, completely disconnected from the fountain of God’s Love. We should never view God as love, forgetting that He is a righteous judge that sees all humanity through a just and righteous love.

There was a woman that left her husband and disappeared without a trace. After filing a missing persons report, the local authorities found her living in a neighboring state. The police asked the man if he wanted them to take him to where she was living. Realizing how bad and cruel he had been to his wife, he decided to write her instead of visiting her, which he did over several months. When Christmas was almost upon them, he chose to visit her and found her living in a run-down motel. He asks her to come back to him, which she did without any hesitation. Later he asked her why she had come back so quickly after months of letters. She said those were just words on a piece of paper, this time you came in person.

Our Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus did that for us; He came in-person to save us from eternal death and demonstrate His love for us.

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