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(1 John 4:11,12) Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one
another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us
and his love is made complete in us.
There's an
interesting fact about the word "so" here of which few may realize
impacts the meaning. "So", the Greek word "houtos", does not
refer to the magnitude of God's love but to the manner of God's love. Likewise "houtos" is used in (John 3:16) "For God so loved the world that he gave
his one and only Son ..." The meaning is "For God in this manner love the world .." It does not mean "For God love
the world so much"
So also here the
idea is not that God love us so much that we should love one another so much.
But rather since God loved us in
this manner (the cross), in
this manner we should love one another. Which among other things means dealing with other
people's sins.
Likewise Paul writes, "Husbands, love
your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make
her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to
present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any
other blemish, but holy and blameless." (Eph 5:25-27) But such an idea is unpopular in the post-modernistic
feel good Christian community in which any confrontation with regards to sin or
correction is treated as itself being sinful.
"No one has
ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made
him known." (John 1:18) And in particular we know God's love through his Son and
what he did on the cross.
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