72 14 Habits of Highly Effective Disciples
we are truly followers of Jesus, love for others is not optional; Jesus com-
mands us to do so (v. 21).
Focusing on the Meaning
The Old Testament is not silent about God’s love. One of the consistent
descriptions of God reveals the heart of God’s character: “a gracious and
compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who
relents from sending calamity” (Jonah 4:2). With slight variations, this
description occurs in Exodus 34:6–7, Numbers 14:18, Deuteronomy 4:31,
Nehemiah 9:17, several Psalms (86:15, 103:8, and 145:8), and Joel 2:13. In
fact, Jonah complained to God that the reason he had not wanted to go
and preach to the people of Nineveh was that Jonah knew of God’s great
love, and Jonah did not want that wicked city to be spared. Proverbs 17:17
thus provides a glimpse of the way the people of this loving God should
ref lect his character by caring for one another at all times, whether they
be a relative or simply a friend.
The New Testament has much to say about God’s love and has two
particularly eloquent treatises on love: 1 Corinthians 13 and our focal
passage for this lesson. The 1 John passage provides the deepest ref lec-
tion in the Bible about God’s love and how that love should impact the
way we live and love others. In these fifteen short verses, the Greek word
for love (agape) occurs thirty-one times in various forms, emphasizing
this trait as the key attribute for Christian disciples because “God is
love” (1 John 4:8).
Nevertheless, we must be careful not to reduce God to a mere emo-
tion or feeling by reversing this statement, saying that love is God. God
is a personal being who demonstrated his love for us by sending his one
and only Son to become the atonement for our sins. In response to God’s
deep love for us, we are able to respond to God in love and demonstrate
our love for others through our actions. As we develop the habit of loving
others, we will ref lect through our lives that we truly love God and abide
in him; and him in us.