April 23, 2016

PPIL - Powerful Passage Impacts Life
1 John 4:10 NKJV - "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."

Commentary:

My purpose for sharing this Daily Verse with you is to show that when God wants us to "love our neighbor" He reveals in His Word that He "loved His neighbors" too!  This is one of the great "God so loved" verses in the Bible.  Ever since John 3:16, a clear teaching has been presented in God's Word:  God Loves Everyone!  And this verse in 1 John declares the evidence of His love.  In the KJV and the NKJV the word "propitiation" is used which seems difficult enough to understand let alone, pronounce!  But the truth of this word shows the extent of God's love for the world! 

Propitiation means that Jesus Christ completely satisfied God's just demands that sin be judged.  Jesus became our propitiation, 1 John 2:2, and "not ours (believers) only, but He was the propitiation for the sins of the whole world."  "God so loved the world..." that Christ became "the propitiation for the sins of the whole world."  Jesus took the place of everyone on the cross when He died for  everyone's sins to show just how much God loved everyone!

Since "God so loved the world" He wants us to "love our neighbor" no matter who that neighbor may be!  No, we can't do what Christ did in dying for sinners, but we can still show love to everyone as we serve them for Jesus' sake.  How can we do that especially when some people are so cruel?  Jesus died for those who killed Him.  He expects us to love people like He did.  Remember our study about believing that God will give us the "desire and the power to do what pleases Him" (Philippians 2:13)?  Since God loved everyone and if He wants us to love everyone, then He will give us the desire and the power to do that!  Believe Him and watch Him love through you!  (More about this in tomorrow's Daily Verse).