On a Scale of 1 - 10

God is love.  
God lives in me.  
Therefore love lives in me.

God is love.  
I live in love.  
Therefore God lives in me.

God lives in me. 
I live in the world.  
Therefore God lives in the world.
  The evangelists Paul and John both used this kind of reasoning when arriving at teachable conclusions in their letters.  The one that inspired the above examples is 1 John 4:16-17, "God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him."   God is complete love. Therefore complete love is in the world because we are like him.
  Most days I think the amount of love in me varies on a sliding scale with complete on one end and none on the other.  Or, as you see in surveys today, "Please rate on a scale of 1 - 10 where 10 is complete love and 1 is no love. . . ."  And what does this rating indicate about what we really believe?  Do we believe we only have a little bit of love in us, so we must only have a little bit of God in us?  Can God be portioned out like that?  It's a ridiculous thought.
  If we  have God in us, it would seem that we have the complete God in us and therefore complete love in us. (God is not incomplete, not imperfect in any way.)  We, however, may be portioning out God's love, incompletely using it, not allowing God's complete love to work in the world.  And the world is the poorer for it.
  For Reflection:  Where am I on that scale of 1 - 10?  Can I let God's love shine through me more completely today?
  Let us pray.  You, Lord, are complete love.  You are in me and I am in you. Help me to let your love shine through more completely today.
  

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