1John 4:8 (Amplified) says, "He who does not love has not become acquainted with God (does not and never did know Him), for God is love."
Notice how this scripture doesn't say that the person isn't saved, but that he doesn't know his Heavenly Father. Many in the body of Christ today don't know God. We've mostly drawn our understanding of God from the Old Testament. And, many Christians have never actually known Him as Father. When God brought about the new birth through Jesus, the relationship with mankind changed forever. 1Peter 1:23 (Amplified) says that, "You have been regenerated (born again) not from a mortal origin (seed, sperm), but from One that is immortal by the everliving and lasting Word of God."
When God brought about this new birth, as our Father, He made the decision to become responsible for us in every way. Even in our mortal state or natural life here in America, we have laws about "dead beat dads." Every man who brings forth offspring, is responsible for raising and providing for his own children. Would we expect our Heavenly Father to be less responsible for His children?
In the old covenant, God watched over His people as their protector. He stood against their enemies as their help and guard. As Father, He now deliberately took the full responsibility of a Father and His family. This character and nature of God has now been passed onto us through our new birth and the indwelling Spirit of God.
We've received the very nature and character of our Father by this new birth. Because we've not actually begun to think of ourselves as really being in His Image, we don't strive to become as He is. We keep hearings such things from Christians as, "Yes, but that was Jesus and we can't be like He was in our walk with God." We've looked upon Jesus as being something different from ourselves. I'm not implying at all that we are the Messiah or Savior. And, we're not the Head of the Church, but we are called "the body of Christ."
Since Jesus is the Son of God and we are also called sons of God, it would stand to reason that if we both have the same Father, then we would have the same attributes and character. Jesus was not born of mortal man and never had the same genetics of death and sin that was bred into us from the Garden on. Mankind walked in the darkness for generations. The character of God that flowed so easily from Jesus, is something we must learn how to allow flow from us. The very same Spirit, life, character and attributes that Jesus had as a man, are also present in us.
Learning how to flow in this new birth and learning how to live is where we run into problems. We had walked in the realm of the flesh and darkness that we had trained ourselves to respond only in that realm. Our mind and body have never known anything else. This is why Peter admonished the Church to know the full personal knowledge of Jesus and the promises of the new birth in 2Peter 1:4-5 (Amplified) saying, "For this very reason, adding your diligence (to the divine promises) employ every effort in exercising your faith to develop all the other attributes of Christ." All of these things come by faith in your personal knowledge of Jesus.
We exercised our faith in God when we received forgiveness and our new birth, but we didn't always add the other parts of the promise to our faith.
Until we realize we're supposed to be this way, we will exercise our faith in these areas. Because we know from 1John 4:7 that, "God is love," we can assume that as God's offspring, this is also our nature. Paul gives us a perfect plan for operating in the same supernatural gifts of the Spirit when he said in 1Corinthians 12:31 (Amplified) that, "Earnestly desire and zealously cultivate the greatest and best gifts and graces (the higher gifts and choicest graces) And yet I will show you a more excellent way (one that is better by far and the highest of them all-love)."
Paul teaches that the best way to obtain these gifts is by knowing and walking in love. All of these gifts of the Spirit are attributes of God's character. Without the character of God's love, all these gifts are out of our reach. Jesus, Who was God's Love in the flesh, didn't do the things He did because of pride or proud display, but because Love couldn't stand seeing the people bound in sin or sickness. God's heart went out to the people and love set them free.
Both 1Corinthians 12:4-8 and 1John 4:7 teach us that God is love. We can read these verses by putting (love) in the place of God, reading"God (love) endures long and is patient and kind, God (love) never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, God (love) does not display Himself haughtily." Verses 5-8 say, "God (love) is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride) God (love) is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act becomingly. God (love) (His Own presence in us) does not insist on His Own rights or His Own way, for He (love) is not self-seeking, God (love) takes no account of the evil that is done to Him (He pays no attention to a suffered wrong. God (love) does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail. God (love) bears up under anything and everything that comes, God (love) is ever ready to believe the best of every person, God (love) His hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and God (love) endures everything (without weakening). God (love) never fails (never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to and end)." Verse 13 says, "And so, faith, hope love abide (faith-conviction and belief respecting man's relationship to God and divine things; hope-joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation; love (God) true affection for God and man growing out of God's love for and in us) These three; but the greatest of these if love (God Himself)."
The gifts of the Spirit listed in 1Corinthians 12 are God's (love's) weapons of warfare against an enemy who has held God's people in bondage for millenniums. It's God Himself (love in action) Who moves by His grace to set the people free from the curse. Jesus Himself said, "It's not Me, but the Father (love) in Me that does the works."
This love (which is God Himself), is the most powerful things in the universe. As we come to know Him in this person knowledge that Peter spoke of, we understand how these gifts and miracles work. They work by love or God in us. They work by the Father in me Who does the works. The great heart of God cannot stand to see what sin and death does to mankind who He made in His Image. There's no "dead beat dad" who would care about his children. Our Abba Daddy cannot stand to see His children suffer. He depends on our learning and being directed by His presence in us, "To set at liberty, all those who are bound."
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