The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

1 John 4:7-9, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.”

The Apostle John’s first and second epistles (letters) were written about A.D. 85. The third epistle was written about A.D. 96. All three were written to Jewish believers. The word “another” (????????) means “another of the same kind.” John appears to be appealing to the Church “to love other believers,” probably Gentiles, who had come to faith in Christ, because he goes on to say that “everyone who loves is born of God…”

Love is vitally imporatant because it comes from God. There are four Greek words that translate as “love.” Philos is a brotherly love. The word here is agapao; it is a godly love that does not depend upon the acceptance of another person.

It means “I-love-you-even-if-you-don’t-love-me.” Agapao is the most powerful love there is. It’s the love with which the LORD loved us and sent His Son, Jesus, to be our Savior. It’s the love that held Christ Jesus to the Cross, while ungodly men bleaphemed Him openly! If we don’t possess that kind of love for others, John is clear and forceful in saying that we simply “do not know God.” That’s heavy stuff!

God loved us so that we might love Him! When we love others, we manifest that our lives are being lived through Him and for Him. In that, the LORD is glorified. So, when we turn away from sin and accept the LORD Jesus Christ by faith as our LORD and Savior, the Holy Spirit enters in and permeates our lives with Himself, so that we commence to look and act like Jesus. WOW! How great is that?!

Therefore, when men (and women) act evily, instead of hating and despizing them, we should act in love. Of course we don’t approve their ungodly behavior; but we show them the love they’ve never known –the absence of which leads them to atrocious deeds of evil. Some of the great Christian saints of the past were once perveyors of evil until they experienced the love of Christ through the hearts and lives of true believers. Once their lives experienced Divine Change, they often overtook the godliness in the lives of those who introduced them to Christ.

Give the LORD Jesus Christ a chance with your life! Pray that He will allow you to love the unloveliest of the lost! You’ll notice a difference in your life and a difference in theirs. God bless you in your venture for Him!

Heartily in Christ Jesus,

(Dado III)

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

Springdale, Arkansas 72764

United States of America

“We never know that God is all we need

until He becomes all that we have.”