We search for it everywhere.  In songs and stories.  From parents and friends.  Through the varied pathways that we hope will lead to betrothal.  And through the tumultuous journey from “I do” until “death do us part.”  We all long for perfect love.  A love that satisfies all the aches loneliness inflicts.  A love that fixes all that is broken in our hearts by life in a fallen world.

Perhaps it is only as we age that we fully grasp the truth that love, as good as it can be, is never perfect in the songs, stories, places and people where we seek it.  The expectations we place on all the creaturely objects of our love are unrealistic and unfair.  Our spouses, our parents, our friends, and our special places can never meet the burden of our expectations for perfect love.  And likewise, we can never meet the burden of their expectations.

Yet God has made us with a longing for perfect love.   The only thing not declared ‘good’ at creation was the loneliness of man.  And so, God formed Eve to be a companion for Adam, perfectly suited for him.  Adam’s declaration we he first sees her reveals his expectations that Eve would satisfy all that was missing as he cries out “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.” 

In the space of only a few verses, however, sin enters the world and injects blame and doubt into Adam and Eve’s perfect love story.  The places and people made for Adam and Eve are no longer perfect.  Yet their longing for perfect love remained.  Just as it does for us.  But where will we find it now? Where can we find a love that meets the burden of all our expectations?  

In the Apostle John’s first letter, he writes to believers struggling with assurance.  Anti-Christs, false teachers, gnostic heretics were denying the authoritative teaching of the Apostles.  They promised a knowledge of God through mystical, personal experience which made no moral or social demands.  They broke fellowship with the Church and encouraged others to do the same.  

So, John wrote a brief but powerful letter to encourage Christians in all times, places, and circumstances in our assurance.   John’s letter describes a series of tests that provide assurance.  John’s tests were theological, moral, and social.  The theological test was to trust in the Apostolic witness as the source of truth about the person and work of Christ.  The moral test was to live a transformed life in obedience to the commandments of Christ.  And the social test was to love our brothers, not just in words, but in deeds. 

Nowhere in scripture are we exhorted more to love one another than in chapter 4 of 1 John.  Twenty-nine times in this short chapter, John uses some form of the word ‘love.’  But it is important to note that while believers are instructed to love one another, the only perfect love John describes in this passage is the love God has for us.  A love that empowers and enables us to love one another.   John writes, “We love because he first loved us.”  And “there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.”

Our love for one another can never be perfect.  But God’s love for us is always perfect.  And that perfect love has remarkable effects in the lives of believers.   Join us as we examine 1 John 4:13-21 and discover the power of God’s perfect love upon his children. We meet on the square in Pottsville, right next to historic Potts’ Inn at 10:30 am for worship.  Get directions here or contact us for more info.  Or join our livestream on YouTube.