Verse of the Day for February 1

A month about love usually starts by asking people to produce some. Be kinder. Forgive faster. Try harder with the person you find difficult. Most of us have been given that instruction often enough to know it does not generate anything.

We love him, because he first loved us. The sentence has a direction, and the direction is the whole doctrine.

John does not command love here. He explains where it comes from, which is somewhere other than the person being asked to show it.

That matters practically. If love originates in you, then running out of it is a character failure and the only remedy is effort. If it originates elsewhere, running out is a supply problem, and the remedy is to go back to the source.

Most people trying to love a difficult person are attempting to manufacture something they were meant to pass on.

This month will ask hard things of you about people. None of it starts with your reserves.

Receive first. Everything after that is overflow rather than output.