If you think that a good number of blog posts recently have been on the topic of love, blame John! We are studying 1 John in our Bible studies, and this theme is one he returns to over and over again. Last night, we looked at 1 John 4:12-21 and again, the theme of God’s love and how it is manifested in the lives of believers is developed.

God lives in us and His love is made complete in us, John says in 1 John 4:12. He goes on to look at how God lives in us by His Spirit (1 John 4:13) and how our acknowledgment of Jesus as the Son of God is required (expressing positively the truths told us about liars and the antichrist in 1 John 2:22-23.) The key point of remaining in Christ (dwelling, abiding, as expounded in John 15:1-8 and already expressed 7 times in 1 John 2 and 5 times in 1 John 3) is highlighted as the way we access God’s love. This abiding gives us confidence so that we can not only know but rely on God’s love for us. Love is such an important part of the life that God gives us because ‘God is love’ (1 John 4:8, 16). If we are united to God through faith in Christ, then we share His divine nature (see 2 Pet 1:3-4) and we need to understand that despite our sinful nature, positionally we are right now as God is (‘in this world we are like Jesus’ 1 John 4:17). This same truth is expressed in Eph 2:6, when Paul reminds us that God has raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. We may not always feel we are like Jesus, but the truth remains that because He has taken our sins, we are now accepted in the Beloved (Eph 1:4-6, NKJV) and given confidence to approach God as beloved children, not as slaves cowering before a Judge.

John deals with the subject of fear in 1 John 4:18. This is not the healthy respect and reverence due to God (see Heb 5:7), but the nagging fear that cripples us: ‘a fearful life, fear of death, fear of judgment’ as the Message version puts it. Christ was sacrificed one to take away the sins of many (Heb 9:27-28) and so those who believe are given assurance that we have eternal life and have crossed over from death to life. (John 5:24) Because of this, there is now no condemnation (Rom 8:1-2) and God’s perfect love banishes (casts out, flings out of the door) all fear of punishment or torment. God’s Spirit dwelling in us testifies that we are children of God and we do not live in fear as slaves (Rom 8:14-16, see also Rom 8:35-39).

This love fills us with confidence and security, and therefore enables us to love not only God but all people. We may find it easier to profess love for God than to practise love for people, but John is adamant that God’s nature living in us must result in practical demonstrations of love towards others. Instead of fear dominating and causing us to hide and pretend (as with Adam and Eve after that first sin, Gen 3:10), our hearts are confident and there is no need to pretend, to God or to other people. Love for others grows only as we remain in God, however, allowing His love to flourish in us.

We are thrilled to hear that Matthew Murray, for whom we have been praying to recover from a severe strain of malaria which affected his kidneys, lungs and heart, has just been discharged from hospital in America. Matthew, who works for the Christian charity One By One, helping needy children all over the world, contracted malaria whilst in Kenya and has been in intensive care for a number of weeks now. His wife, Becky, wrote movingly of the situation here.

We are so grateful for God’s mercy and healing and thank everyone who has joined us in praying for Matthew. Please continue to pray for his full recovery and for God to continue to bless this couple’s ministry.

Eileen has helped at the youth club for many years, and is proof that you don’t have to be young in years to have a heart for young people. Tonight was her last night serving sweets and drinks there and in honour of her many faithful years of service, she was given some flowers:

Eileen is affectionately known as ‘the Queen’ at church, and she certainly looks very regal here!

Our whole-hearted thanks go to her for her servant heart and faithfulness and we are so grateful to all we learn from her about loving and following Jesus.

Often, we feel that God is so high and mighty that He does not understand our suffering and what it means to be human. Ps 138:6 says, ‘Though the Lord is exalted, he looks kindly on the lowly.’ The fact of the Incarnation means that God does indeed understand what it is to be human. He knows what it is to be weary, to be rejected, to be hurt. He knows what it is to lose family and friends. He has wept at a graveside (John 11:35) He has known betrayal. He has suffered unjustly. There is nothing we can go through in His life that is beyond the compassion of our God.

Jeremy Camp lost his first wife to cancer when she was only twenty-one and he was twenty-three, just three and a half months into their marriage. In his memoir ‘I Still Believe’ (named after a song God gave him two weeks after his wife’s death), he writes of the pain and bewilderment of suffering and God’s grace to Him during that time. A new song ‘He Knows’ returns to the same theme, namely that God knows all about us and has walked the suffering too.

‘All the bitter weary ways,

The endless striving, day by day

You barely have the strength to pray,

In the valley low,

And how hard your fight has been,

How deep the pain within,

Wounds that no one else has seen,

Hurts too much to show.

All the doubt you’re standing in between,

And all the weight that brings you to your knees:

He knows, He knows

Every hurt and every sting;

He has walked the suffering.

He knows, He knows,

Let your burdens come undone.

Lift your eyes up to the One who knows.

We may faint and we may sink,

Feel the pain and near the brink,

But the dark begins to shrink

When you find the One who knows.

The chains of doubt that held you in between,

One by one are starting to break free.

Every time that you feel forsaken

Every time that you feel alone

He is near to the broken-hearted

Every tear He knows.’ (Jeremy Camp, ‘He Knows’)

The story behind the song

We had another birthday to celebrate last night!

We also had a super-hero in the congregation!

2 Cor 1:3-7 reminds us that God is the ‘Father of compassion and God of all comfort.’ Comfort means the easing of pain or constraint or the alleviation of distress or anguish. At different stages of our lives, it’s represented by different things: a dummy to a baby, a soft toy or comfort blanket to a toddler (think of Linus, Charlie Brown’s friend), painkillers when we’re in pain, comfort food when we are down.

God’s comfort is so much more than these things and is motivated by His heart of compassion. Compassion means to suffer with, to enter into the sufferings of another. Jesus is described as the Suffering Servant: ‘a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.’ (Is 53:3) Compassion is an integral part of His nature (Is 49:15-16, Ps 86:15, Neh 9:19) He redeems us and crowns us with love and compassion (Ps 103:4), is full of compassion (Ps 116:5) and His compassions never fail (Lam 3:22). He is both mother and father to us (Ps 103:13-14, Is 66:13). He knows our sorrows, for Jesus Himself has suffered (see Heb 2:10, 17-18) and He is therefore able to come alongside us in our suffering (the Holy Spirit is described as our Comforter): as the Message version of 2 Cor 1:4 says ‘He comes alongside us when we go through hard times.’ Sometimes the chief comfort (consolation, help) which God gives us is His very presence with us (see (Is 43:1-3), as the disciples found on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24.)

God’s comfort overflows into our lives so that we too are then able to comfort others with the same comfort we have received. Often, when we face trials and difficulties, we feel alone and isolated, bereft of any sense of God’s love or mercy, but others remind us of eternal truths and stand with us in practical ways, reminding us of the hope we have in Christ. The enemy wants us to despair and give up, but God uses others to come alongside us because we often need that personal demonstration of love and faithfulness. Though we go through many experiences in life we  would rather avoid, God uses these to give us empathy and compassion to help others in their distress. God will not let us be tempted beyond what we can bear (1 Cor 10:13), but gives us all the help and comfort we need.

God’s comfort is one reason we can rejoice (see Is 49:13). He will not let us fall, but will carry us through the trials and help us in every area of our lives.