God’s Love – and Ours! 1 John 4:7-21 Forest Hills Bible Chapel 22 April 2007

Some Themes of 1 John 1 John gives us the proper relationship among three Christian Virtues: Righteousness – practicing the truth. Love – loving God, and loving one another. Belief – believing, committing oneself to the truth as God has revealed it.

Some Themes of 1 John Love Belief Righteousness

Some Themes of 1 John To have only RIGHTEOUSNESS and BELIEF is to reduce Christianity to a mere creed, and to foster legalism. To have only RIGHTEOUSNESS and LOVE runs the risk of a mere human standard, that accepts anyone and everyone. To have only LOVE and BELIEF runs the risk of not have a valid standard for godly living.

Some Themes of 1 John Righteousness – God expects us to live lives of holiness and godliness. Belief – God expects us to believe the truth – that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, and that He has come in the flesh. Love – God expects us to love one another, even as He has loved us.

Some Themes of 1 John We know that we know Him if: We believe that Jesus is the Christ – 1 John 5:1 – Belief. We obey His commands – 1 John 2:3 – Righteousness. We love our fellow believers – 1 John 3:14 – Love.

Who is God? God is Light – 1 John 1:5. God is Spirit – John 4:24. God is Love – 1 John 4:8.

1 John 4:7-21 7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

1 John 4:7-21 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 13 We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.

1 John 4:7-21 17 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. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

God’s Love…and Ours! Our love for one another is evidence that we know God – vv. 7-8. Love is proactive and love initiates – God showed His love by sending His Son for us – vv. 9-10. Our love for one another should grow out of God’s love for us – v. 11. We display God to one another by loving one another – v. 12.

God’s Love…and Ours! Our life of love is lived in the Triune God- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – vv. 13-16a. We are to “live in love” because to do so is to live in God – vv. 16b-18. We cannot love God, yet fail to love (or hate) or fellow believer – vv. 19-21.

God’s Love…and Ours! A final anecdote about the Apostle John: There is a church tradition, which says, that when John was evidently an old man in Ephesus, he had to be carried to the church in the arms of his disciples. At these meetings, he was accustomed to say no more than, "Little children, love one another!" After a time, the disciples, wearied at always hearing the same words, asked, "Master, why do you always say this?" "It is the Lord's command," was his reply. "And if this alone be done, it is enough!"