No One Has Seen God...

No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. (1 John 4:12, ESV)

This verse is short, beautiful and so convicting.  I have read it often, but I have to admit I never really understood why the first part of verse 12 was even there.  Um...yes, no one has seen God at anytime, but what does that have to do with us loving one another.  Dawn broke!  EVERYTHING!  

Verse 7 tells us that love originated with God.  Verse 9 that this love was made manifest among us when God sent His only Son into the world that we might live through Him.  Reading Verse 12 again:

No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. (1 John 4:12, ESV)

Verse 12a now makes perfect sense.  God is invisible...no one can see Him loving His people.  Jesus is no longer in the world to make His love manifest, but we, His people, are!  Love is the heart of Christian witness.  Jesus said that love is the main identifying mark of a Christian. (John 13:35)   God sending His son to die for us gave us the opportunity for salvation, but also the obligation to be imitators of Him and follow His pattern of loving others sacrificially.  As His people, we are to demonstrate His love to in our hearts and in our lives.  

By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”—John 13:35

Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.  Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.—2 Corinthians 5:18-20