1 John 4:16 - "And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him."

Thoughts on today's verse:

We all know the most famous verse of the Bible - John 3:16, which speaks of love. "For God so loved..." We often share this with others as we share the gospel with them, for part of the message is indeed the love of God. In that sense every true believer should know of the love of God, and every true believer has known the love of God. And, lest we forget, we have a picture of God's love in the form of Christ on the cross, dying for our sins, then being gloriously resurrected with a glorified body. Thus, in a very real sense, we see that, as John states - God is love!

We are then reminded of what this is to do in our lives. Jesus said that "if you love me, keep my commandments" (John 14:15). No doubt John recalls this as he writes this letter, that the one who has experienced the love of God in his life, here, in the form of salvation, is to abide in love.

One commentator noted that "the only way to love, as the only way to believe (15), is by living in God and God in us. For it is the divine indwelling which alone makes possible both belief and love. They are its fruit, and therefore its evidence: ‘he who dwells in love is [i.e. is thereby seen to be] dwelling in God’" (Stott, John. TNTC Letters of John).

We cannot truly love others without first experiencing the love that God had for us and shared with us through Christ.