November 4

Beloved, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. — 1 John 4:7 BSB

Love is a gift that the risen Mediator has received, and He freely shares it from His abundance with His people. We must come to understand that it is a gift. If we could generate or sustain it in our own hearts, we would take pride in our own ability or effort. Some may find it hard to believe that a child of God can feel enmity toward Christ, but the sinful mind is pure enmity against Him. It’s a painful realization for a follower of Christ to recognize that there is something within them that hates Christ—hates His very being, His holiness, and His purity. It’s a feeling that could, at its worst, join in with the crowd shouting, “Crucify Him,” and even push and strike Him along with the Roman soldiers and Jewish mob. If not for the painful reality of experience, we wouldn’t believe that such a terrible hostility could exist in our hearts toward the One whom we long to love and adore.

But how can we truly understand love if we don’t experience the conflict of enmity, carnality, and coldness? When we’ve wrestled with these terrible feelings and the Lord begins to pour a little mercy and grace into our hearts, drawing our affections toward Him, we start to grasp how sweet love really is. Love is the most precious balm we can taste in this life. Even in human relationships, there’s a natural sweetness in love—whether for our spouses, children, or friends. Coldness, dislike, envy, jealousy, and quarrels—all these bitter sparks burn and torment us. If there’s ever a hell within, it’s when our hearts are full of hatred toward God and His people. But when the Lord kindles the flames of love in our hearts, especially love for Jesus and His followers, it’s like a foretaste of heaven. In those moments, enmity and prejudice melt away, and we feel as though we could embrace all of God’s people, saying, “Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.”