Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgement, because as he is, so are we in this world.”
NL Daily Devotion for Monday, July 15, 2024
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
That sounds like a tall order. But the writer of 1 John isn’t saying “you ought to do thus and so in order that love will be perfected in you.” They’re saying it’s already done. That because of God’s love, because God is love, and we are God’s beloved children, that love is perfected in our very being. As God is—love—so are we in this world. We are love. Ponder that for a moment, and allow yourself to bask in the notion that this isn’t something you have to do, but is the state of who you are. Then consider the notion that this is not only who you are, but who everyone around you is—every single person, every animal, plant, ecosystem, incidence of God’s creation. God spoke all that is into being in, with, and through love. And being created in God’s image, we are love.
So the question is not how we can go about perfecting God’s love, but about how we can go about expressing it to one another and the world.
What does it mean to me to consider the idea that I am the embodiment of God’s love? How might such and idea influence my way of being in the world?
