No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. (1 John 4:12)
You could say that this is a problem with Christianity; you can’t see the God we serve. It was so much easier when Jesus was on the ground, doing what he did. We could point to him and say, “I’m following that man!” But his short shelf-life has put the burden of shining forth God’s love on us in our daily existence. It’s not impossible to do so because he occupies us as he occupied his only begotten son. That’s mind boggling, by the way, to think of, but absolutely true. He’s chosen you and me to manifest himself until Jesus returns. That’s no small task but doable, and John gives us the means by which we can extraordinarily demonstrate God’s love in our meager existence.
They will see God in our love for one another.
This is easier said than done. We’re talking about agape love, the kind that requires sacrifice on our part. This is seen in extending a helping hand, graciousness, smiles, kind words, generosity, empathy, restraint, tolerance, boundless patience, scruples, listening, articulating wisdom, and so forth. None of these come naturally to us, but they do come naturally to a Spirit-filled person. We need to work on getting out of God’s way. Like it or not, He’s chosen me and you with all of our foibles to demonstrate his love to the world, and to a certain degree, his power. None of the aforementioned characteristics are slam-dunk easy for us to pull off. Our flesh often gets in the way.
We are now blessed with 15 grandchildren. God’s love in action is no better demonstrated than by parents with little kids. Despite the tantrums and constant neediness of their broods, you see them patiently. soldiering through, mustering the compassion necessary despite a few hours of interrupted sleep and the endless demands, still hugging necks, dispensing food, and teaching life principles to three-year old would be terrorists. This is not lost on me or others. May their tribes increase, or maybe not! To repeat. They will know we are Christian’s by our love.
They will see God in the absence of hate for them.
It’s easy for us to develop a significant amount of antipathy for a godless world. It’s in our faces constantly. Callousness, selfishness, meanness, recklessness, nosiness, riotousness, and so on. But this is our calling. We need God’s love and presence more than ever to confront evil in our world. Past generations would argue that they had it worse, but we’ve got to battle on many more fronts it seems. All the world’s inventions tend to move us away from dependency on God, or they serve as very effective distractions. We’ve got to stay focused on our purpose while treading this earth, and that is to glorify Him.
By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. (1 John 4:13)
We are told that his spirit abides in us. How do we know this? His spirit needs to manifest itself in some way to offer tangible proof that we’ve indeed got it. It’s got to be more than a “still, small voice!” But the size and volume of his spirit is not important when you’re intentionally listening for it with no distractions. This is where prayer must be factored into the equation. Jesus appeared to place a high value on it in his busy ministry. It was worth getting up early to retreat to a “lonely” place for, especially the listening part. (Mark 1:35) Bur still, if we possess his Spirit, is it too much to ask for him to turn up its volume a bit while we do his bidding? I say this facetiously!
It should be also kept in mind that while we have His Spirit in full measure, our particular giftedness is unique. We have some but not all of his gifts. This truth forces us to rely on the toolboxes of other Christians. I must say, this was a masterful stroke of genius on God’s part. We must rely on the whole body of Christ to accomplish his objectives. In marriage, for example, it takes two to raise a village.
14 We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. (1 John 4:14–15)
We seem to be, I am, preoccupied with whether or not a sports figure or actor is a Christian. You just never know. You hear references to his or her “faith,” let’s say, in media accounts or interviews, or see an athlete kneeling in the end zone before a game in apparent prayer, but you still wonder. It’s not until he or she gives glory to God, and better, mentions the name of Christ out loud, that you can know for sure. On life’s biggest stages, if your Lord and Savior is not on your mind, and more importantly, you don’t realize and take advantage of the opportunity to share him, I have to wonder. We can’t miss these opportunities!
But to bring it down to us mere mortals, He’s counting on us to share him in our little victories. My wife is very vocal about the Lord’s provision of close-by parking places. We don’t have to win a Super Bowl to confess Jesus. We should see the Lord’s activities in all things, our victories and defeats. While we can acknowledge on a grand scale that Jesus is “the Savior of the world,” it’s in the little things of life we must see him at work and testify to.
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