“And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” 1 John 4:1
“He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God.”
What does it look like to dwell in love? To dwell means to live or stay as a permanent resident. We often think of love as a feeling we have toward another person. Unfortunately, feelings come and go. So how do we reside in love? Love has to be more to us than our feelings. Let’s look at the ultimate expression of love to find out how we can dwell in it. Looking back to verses 9 and 10 we see that the manifestation of God’s love is that He sent Jesus to the earth to atone for our sin, which He did on the cross. Do you see what this means? What Jesus did on the cross is God’s love for us. To enter into Christ’s death on the cross is to enter into love. How do we do this? The answer is in the first part of the verse we are looking at.
“We have known and believed the love that God hath to us.”
Knowing and believing. First we need to know the truth, then enter into it by faith. Romans 6:3 says “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?” The truth is that we already have been baptized (placed or immersed) into Christ. We just need to abide in that reality by faith, believing it as true. For an example lets look at how salvation is received. We know that Jesus died for the sins of the world, but it is only those that receive it by faith that enter into salvation. It is the same with God’s love. The truth is that He loves us and has shown this to us, but we need to receive it by faith. This is how we enter into God’s love, and to remain in that position of belief is to dwell in it.
“God is love”
You cannot experience real love outside of Christ, so press hard into Christ and you will find love. His love has always been there for you, you just need to look for it. Once you are experiencing that love through your position in Christ, the feeling and knowledge of His love will grow.
May you all dwell in the love of God.
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