NOTES for Jo1 4:7-10
What the apostle John says today is very simple and very hard... The constantly repeated word "love" is the key. What could be simpler? What could be harder? The apostle says that we know God lives in us by the fact that we love one another, and immediately he puts forward another version as well: that God abides in the one who confesses that Jesus is the Son of God. In general, all of us, calling ourselves Christians, already confess that He is the Son of God. Some of us even read the Creed every day. But with love things are somewhat worse... So what do we have in the way of criteria for abiding in God? This is what we get: there are no simple answers. We are in Him insofar as we believe in Him, and outside Him insofar as we do not know how to love... and only He can somehow sort out this confusion and teach us to love.