7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 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. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.REFLECTIONSWritten by Eric ZhouLove can be such an ugly and messy thing, and often as hard as we try, we still fail to love one another properly, so why do we bother at all, why love?In our passage John exhorts us to love, giving us 3 reasons: love comes from God, love shows that we have been born of God & love shows that we know God. All of which begins with God's initiative. And if we are children of God, then it only makes sense for us to be growing in love as we ourselves experience a loving relationship with God as our Father, whose very nature 'is love' (v8)Having looked at why we should love, John then gives us a clear example of how God has shown us his love in the most personal, selfless and sacrificial way, by sending his one and only Son that we might live through him (v9). This is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us so much so as to send his Son to take our place and atone for our sins. As ugly and messy as love can be, it can also be such a beautiful and precious thing too! Can you imagine if this example of love seen in v9 was dependent on us having loved God first? Take a moment now to give thanks that God out of love and in His grace, despite our failure to love him fully, sends his Son to bring us back to himself. But even more than ‘why love’, another question to ask is  ‘Why not love?’, If God has indeed sent his one and only son into the world (that despised and rejected him) so that we might live forever in a loving relationship with him, then why wouldn't we want to live out this same love to one another. And as we do so, the world will see glimpses of God's perfect love as he lives in us. So then dear friends, let us love one another! ABOUT THE AUTHOREric is a member of our Bossley Park Morning Service.