Not Sold Separately (Friday Devotional)

“God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.”

- 1 John 4:15-16

When I go running every morning, the last thing I do before stepping outside my front door is put on my socks and my tennis shoes. I need both—the socks and the shoes—to have a decent run. If I ran with socks and no shoes, I’d return home with wet, ripped up socks and probably with aching feet. If I ran with shoes on but without socks, I’d come back with fresh blisters on my feet. My shoes and my socks aren’t meant to be used separately, but as a package deal—and I won’t get far unless I have both.

God and love are a lot like tennis shoes and socks in that respect—they are meant to be paired with one another, one understood in relation to the other. Nevertheless, both the world and the church fall into the trap of trying to separate the two. On the one hand, the world tries to know love without knowing God, replacing the self-sacrificial, holy, overflowing love of God with a shallow, fleeting, selfish alternative. And on the other hand, the church too often tries to know God without knowing love, proclaiming moral imperatives but refusing to embody the radical grace of the cross, that love which heals the broken and forgives the unforgivable.

1 John 4:15 reminds us that God is love, and that in order to abide in God, you must abide in love. God and love are not meant to be understood apart from one another, but rather in unity. Growing in your relationship with God means better embodying the love of Christ, and one cannot happen without the other.

So as you seek to know God better, to grow in your relationship with Him, be sure you are also seeking to love God and love your neighbor, for it is only through the lens of love that you will get a full picture of who God is. And in the same way, as you seek to love those around you, may the love you extend go beyond the mere affection that the world models, instead exemplifying the deep love that is only truly possible when you know the grace of God. When you step out your front door into the world, do so equipped with both God and with love—you won’t make it far without both.