Lesallan | November 23, 2025
Sunday Devotion
Scripture — 1 John 4:19-21 (KJV)
19 We love him, because he first loved us.
20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
21 And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.
Love begins as a gift, not an achievement. John’s simple sentence—“We love him, because he first loved us”—cuts through every self-justifying list of spiritual accomplishments and reminds us that our affection for God is always a response. Before we were faithful, patient, or holy, God poured out love toward us. That foundational truth frees us from performance and opens our hearts to receive and return the grace we had not earned.
John then draws a sharp moral line: talk of loving God rings hollow if it coexists with hatred toward a brother or sister. Seeing another human being is the more accurate test of our claims. The visible neighbor is the living proof of the invisible God’s work; to ignore, despise, or wound that neighbor is to contradict the very love we profess. This is not merely ethical pressure; it is a theological diagnosis—our love for God and our love for people are inseparable.
The commandment John repeats is both demanding and straightforward: if you love God, love your brother also. Practically, this means choosing reconciliation over suspicion, mercy over judgment, and presence over avoidance. Loving our brothers and sisters will look different in different contexts—a phone call to the lonely, a changed mind toward someone we’ve dismissed, practical help given without keeping score—but the motive is the same: to reflect the love that first found us.
Let us pray for hearts shaped by that first, initiating love. Ask for humility to receive God’s love, courage to lay down resentments, and wisdom to love in concrete ways. May our communities bear witness that God’s love transforms not only private devotion but everyday relationships, so that what we say about God is confirmed by how we live together.
Grace and Peace,
Lesallan
