Immediately following he declaration that God is love, John writes 1 John 4:7-11. Here John points us to God’s sacrifice in sending His Son to remind us that love sacrifices to forgive. We ae told that since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. Yet, do we love one another enough to forgive each other, with or without apologies for wrongs done to us? We all have an innate sense of justice deep withing our souls, but it has been perverted by our selfish sinful natures. The justice we envision satisfies our own interests. We need to understand that God is the only rigtful administrator of justice in all of creation. In order to forgive others, we must be satisfied with God’s justice and forego the satisfaction of our own (Romans 12:17-21). This forgiving aspect of love enables us to be patient with one another and to live at peace with one another. This love enables us to deal gently with our brother, even when he sins against us. If we are to grow in the grace of love, we must be ready to forgives, even at great cost to ourselves.
