Friendship - Edition #6: Exhausting Love

April 14th, 2006

Good Friday!
Friendship – Edition #6: Exhausting Love

1st John 4:7-21
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

God makes love. God is affection. God is benevolence. God means love. These are ways to translate that from the Greek according to E-sword. More so, we ought to love one another. We owe love to each other. I don’t know about you, but to hear that translation is challenging. I owe love to you.

Owe (verb):

• To be indebted to the amount of.


• To have a moral obligation to render or offer.


• To be in debt to.


• To be indebted or obliged for.

I have an obligation to love you. I am in debt for my love for you. I can never give you the love that I am required. Does that mean since I can not give enough that I should not even try? By no means should I have that mindset. I should give everything I can and then some; I should exhaust myself in my effort. Whoever loves God must also love his sister. Whoever loves God must also love his neighbor (Matthew 19:19). Who loves God must also love his friend (John 15:13). Whoever loves God must also love his enemy (Matthew 5:44). If I don’t do there things, then I am a liar. The kicker is that these people are owed the love. I owe it to them to love them. Even the people who rub me the wrong way, even the people who irritate me to no end, and even the people who push my buttons, they are all due love from me.

Romans 13:7
Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.

If love, then love.

Romans 13:8-10
Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself." Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

Love is a debt that can never be repaid. I will always owe love to everyone. And that is a good debt to have. There is an obligation for me to love you. And I am glad for that obligation and even gladder to do what I can send in payments. Have a Good Friday everyone… it is friend day, it is Good Friday, and Easter is on Sunday… Johnny Out.