Love 102

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.
Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
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.
We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.
And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.
In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.
There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
We love because he first loved us.
If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar.
For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.
And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
1 John 4:7-21

I titled this blogpost LOVE 102, LOVE 101 is the well known "love chapter" 1 Corinthians 13.
John goes really deep here, and there are some truths that are stated here that are brutally honest. Who among us doesn't bear the scars of wounds caused by spiritual siblings who said they "loved" us, but made us gossip fodder, betrayed or abandoned us when they were most needed and trusted? The answers to these questions are why so many who consider themselves Christians are without church affiliation. They love God, crave fellowship, but have so hurt by legalistic, religious types who have appointed themselves as judges instead of showing that they understand Jesus' heart by loving, really loving others. The first and second commandments, to love the Lord with all our being, and love each other as ourselves, are wrapped up in the above quoted verses.
We honored a brother at church today, whose birthday almost passed by unnoticed, who is so selfless, so giving, so dependable and available that there is no need for him to tell his brothers and sisters that he loves them: it so obvious in everything he does. He gives extravagantly of everything he has: time, effort, money, and other resources. He never seeks his own good or self interests, and rarely, if ever, asks for anything in return, except for love. He is so quiet and unassuming sometimes, that his presence might be overlooked but not unnoticed or forgotten.
He is a living stone, an inspiration. I look up to him and see Jesus in and through his life.
Happy belated birthday, Chris, I love you brother!