1John 4:12 - God's avatars?

"God no one ever has seen.  If one another we may be loving, God in us is abiding and His love in us is having been perfected."

-No, no one has seen God face-to-face, ever (and in fact, no mere mortal in their fallen state can see Him and live - Exodus 33.20).  The magnificent exception of course is Jesus (John 6.46).  Plus if you see/saw Jesus in the flesh you have basically seen the Father.  He said so Himself (John 14.9).  Moses famously did get a glimpse of the divine backside (Exodus 33.21-23), and he was privileged to have unparalleled access to the Lord, direct “face-to-face” conversations with some form of God (Numbers 12.8, Exodus 34.10, Deuteronomy 34.10).  But clearly this had to have been more face-to-back, or face-to-form.  But even ol’ Mo didn’t get a full frontal view of the Lord.  And for the rest of us, before or after Moses - no one.  Not one of us.

-But do you see what John is saying here?  There is this awesome avatar arrangement which could provide the souls around us who were designed for glory the chance to glimpse the embodiment of the glorious God.  And this unprecedented opportunity to manifest the divine essence falls to the people of God, in whom His Spirit dwells.  We can give those around us a glimpse of His perfect love made perfect in us.  If and when we as His beloved children are able to come together and be loving one another, it gives the world the chance to see God, to catch a glimpse of the divine, of what He is like.  Because, again, He is love.  We are not more like Him than when we are loving one another.  This is the way we as God’s people realize the perfection and completion of His love.  This is the way the world knows that God is among us, that He lives among us and in us.  And this is what the world needs now, what it needs from the Church.  Love sweet love, God’s agape love, to manifest itself from every pore and fiber of our being in our relationships with one another.  The New Testament church crushed this out of the park.  It was said of these early believers, “Behold, how they love one another.” They spent time together and ate their meals together and shared their stuff with one another and served together.  They had so much fun and joy with one another, it was almost too much.  The haters said they were drunk.  They did their darnedest to try and break up the party.  But many of those on the outside who got this glimpse of God in their midst by how the first Christians loved one another wanted in.  They wanted some of that.

-How about the ones today, standing on the outside looking askance at Christ, waxing cynical and disillusioned as they observe church-split after church-split on top of corruption and depravity?  Christians hating one another and leaving one another and criticizing one another and divorcing one another and living in unforgiveness towards one another?  Not only do those outside not see sacrificial unconditional love, they get a heaping helping of entirely the opposite.  Don’t you think they would want some of that perfect-God-love also, if only they ever got a glimpse?  Shall we not give it to them, let ‘em have it...?  Well, we need to start by giving it to one another.  Giving love to one another.  Giving to one another, a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over.  We need to bring our A game.  With all our doing, we need to do this.  By God’s grace and power, we can.  We must.  We will.