This is the first of seven episodes on 1 John, chapter four, verses 7-21. I've entitled it "Perfect Love" because John is going to continue his discussion of the love we are to exhibit to all those around us. And it isn't just any kind of love we are to show. It's godly love. The perfect love of God as expressed through His Son's sacrificial death on the cross. Godly love is selfless in nature. It isn't based on the lovability of the one being loved. It isn't earned or deserved. And the kind of love God has showered on us is the same kind of love we are to share with all those around us. His love gets perfected or completed through us. We end up loving others as we have been loved. We become conduits of His love. And it begins within the body of Christ, but flows out to the lost with whom we live and interact every day. As John puts it so clearly, "We love because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19 ESV). In other words, our love for others is motivated by God's gracious love for us. We know what perfect love is. But God's love was not meant to stop with us. It is to be shared.
