When I was a child, I always looked at the Word of God as a “rule book.” It was drilled into our heads that we would be judged by the word (John 12:48) and that the word was sharper than any two-edged sword (Hebrews 4:12). While all these descriptions of the Word are true and scriptural , the emphasis on these aspects of the Word gives an incomplete picture of the exhaustive power of God’s Word. The Word is also a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path (Psalm 119:105). The Word was in the beginning, the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1). So if the Word was God, then the question is: what is God?
The Word of God today comes from 1 John 4:7-8:
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
Once again, John emphasizes our love for one another as Jesus did in John 13:35 (by this all men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another). In 1 John 4:7-8, the original language states “those who are loved, let us love.” The writer is letting us know that if we are truly recipients of God’s love, it will show in how we love each other. The word “know” is comes from the Greek word ginosko which means know by experience. We know God because we have experienced God and therefore have experienced His love. Therefore, according to the text if we do not love it must mean we do not know or have not experienced God for God is Love. Although, the fact that God is Love is a Biblical truth, love does not define God, but God defines love in all things; His holiness, His righteousness, His justice, His grace, His mercy, His forgiveness, and even in His chastisement. So I embrace the Word of God as not just a rule book but as a beautiful love story; a love story between God and His most precious creation, us. I am so glad to know that we love, not to be of God, but because we are of God and God is Love. TO GOD BE THE GLORY!
Becoming the Man I am Called to Be 