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never knew

1 John 4:8
"He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love."

This is POWERFUL writing by John. The "knoweth not" in the original Greek is "aorist." It means "never knew." As in not once known God. A stranger to GOD. This is something I want to meditate on. As we read yesterday, John has established Christians need to LOVE like GOD LOVES. "Beloved, let us LOVE one another..."

Do we love the way Jesus loves? We talk about loving people, our family, and friends. We often talk about loving chocolate, or coffee, or popcorn, or football, or golf, or shopping, or movies, or whatever. But GOD'S LOVE is greater than what we commonly call "love." We remind ourselves of John 3:16. The record there is Jesus's conversation with Nicodemus, a Pharisee. At this time, the Jewish religion was no longer about GOD'S LOVE. It was about obedience and how much you did or didn't do for God. Rules and rituals that became twisted. Jesus was saying, "It's not about what you do for God. It's about GOD'S LOVE for you!" Hear these words as they came from the lips of the man who will be tortured and killed for the benefit sinners everywhere! Think about this.
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