God’s Love Is in Us
David W Palmer
(1 John 4:18 CSB) There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment (or has its own punishment or torment). So the one who fears is not complete in love.
God’s love for us is perfect. Jesus expects us to love with this same love:
(Matthew 5:43–48 DKJV) “You have heard that it was said, ‘“you shall love your neighbour,” and hate your enemy.’ {44} But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you. {45} This way, you will prove to be children of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. {46} For if you love only those who love you, what reward do you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do that? {47} And if you greet by invoking peace on your brothers only, what do you do more than others do? Don’t even the tax collectors do that? {48} Therefore, be completely perfect in love, just as your Father in heaven is completely perfect in love.”
“Love your enemies?” “Be completely perfect in love?” This seems impossible, until we realize that he has made it more than do-able by actually pouring his love into us. The following three Scriptures are evidence of this:
1. The love of Jesus in us
(John 17:26 NKJV) “And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”
The Father loves Jesus, and he has placed that very same love in us. We can, therefore, love Jesus with the same quality the Father does.
2. God’s love is “Love” himself, poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit
(Romans 5:5 NKJV) “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
Here we see that God’s love is literally “poured out in our hearts” by the Holy Spirit himself. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would be “with you and … in you” (John 14:17 CSB). As the Holy Spirit is God, and God is love; we see without doubt that the very God of love and the love of God is in us. This is not an imitation, a copy, or an inferior human love. The actual love of God has been poured into us—not trickled, dripped, or measured, but “poured.” We can, therefore, fulfill Jesus’s expectation: “Be completely perfect in love, just as your Father in heaven is completely perfect in love.” That is, we can, by his grace, love flawlessly and unconditionally. This is because he is in us to do it through us … but only if we trust him to and cooperate with him.
3. The Spirit of Love:
(2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV) “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
Here we see the Holy Spirit himself confirm that he is the Spirit of Love, and that God has given him to us. Amazing!
The apostle Paul said, by experience and by revelation, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:13 NKJV). Jesus expects us to love God and each other with the love he exhibited. This initially seemed impossible, but we now know that God has placed his amazing love in us. Therefore, it is completely possible to love others with God’s love—as Paul has said; we can do it because he enables and strengthens us to do it.
To help us walk in an overflow of God’s love that he has poured into us, the Holy Spirit gave us the following prayer. I encourage you to add this to your regular prayers. Pray it over yourself, your family, your church, and others:
(Philippians 1:9–11 NLT) “I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. {10} For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return. {11} May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation—the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus C
