1 "We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him." 1 John 4:16 Why do you suppose John added “believing” to “knowing” the love that God has for us? “It is the same as though he had said, “We have known by believing;” for such knowledge is not attained but by faith. But we hence learn how different, is an uncertain or doubtful opinion from faith.” Calvin It is an abstract point but worth seeing, that faith and the unseen aspects of faith will NEVER have anything to do with the common sight world in which we live. Faith is not of this world, and that is why having our eyes on God’s Kingdom rather than on the distracting things of this world, is necessary to experiencing and growing in God’s Kingdom.

2 "We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him." 1 John 4:16 You should also remember that when the verbs are clustered like that, it is for emphasis and we should pay particular attention to the point that is being emphasized. What is the point that is being emphasized? We have an enormous need to “experience and to believe” the love that God has for us!!!

3 "We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him." 1 John 4:16 I have to tell you that in the Greek the line “God has for us” actually reads “God has IN us.”

4 “This is the same ἐ ν ἡ μ ῖ ν that was found in verse 9. It does not mean “to us” (A. V.), “in us” (R. V.), “in our case” (R. V. margin), the German an uns, etc.; but “in connection with us,” ἐ ν being used in its original meaning, the connection being the one which the context indicates, here the fact that God’s love succeeded in connecting itself with us. For that reason, too, John says “the love which God has in connection with us” while in the next breath he repeats from verse 8: “God is love.” Lenski Love is invisible and arguably useless, and certainly not satisfied until it meets its object – and YOU are the object of God’s infinite, uncontainable, unrelenting, inescapable love! Pay very close attention to the prepositions and the associations that are stated in the prepositions in our next verse.

5 "By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him." 1John 4:9 God released His love inside of us and through us to others around us so that we can actually LIVE every aspect of life THROUGH Him. This is the word “διά” which means “by way of, by means of, as a consequence of Him”. Do you see why literally everything that we do, think and say is to come as a result of the function of God’s love doing what it does best in you? That is actually how Jesus lived on earth as a man.

6 "Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. " John 14:10 So Jesus lived His human life by allowing the Father to accomplish His work through Jesus’ mortal body, which is exactly what Paul said that he did. "For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me." Colossians 1:29

7 It is also precisely how we are to live in all the things we do from minute to minute. "Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaint. As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen." 1Peter 4:8- 11

8 "We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for (in) us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him." 1 John 4:16 So our first preposition here tells us that we know by experience and believe the love that God has placed IN us by connecting Himself to us, that is, there is an association, a union between us as individuals and God, and the God who is love now resides inside of us. Somehow that love, the God who is love living in us, changes everything about US.

9 "We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him." 1 John 4:16 Our second preposition talks about us abiding in love. Our third preposition tells us that the one abiding in love does in fact abide in God. So what does this description begin to reinforce? God IS LOVE! The one who remains in God, will find God always abiding in him, always living out His life, thinking and choosing in our mortal bodies.

10 "We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him." 1 John 4:16 Our last preposition tells us that if we remain in love, we will remain in God and God will remain in us – does that sound like association? To this point we need to see that there is a critical and intimate relationship between CHOOSING to love, especially when it is not easy, God’s love abiding in us, and remaining in that love so that God’s love can be completed in is. Do you know why it is critical for us to CHOOSE to remain in love? It is really simple when you think about it. If you don’t choose to remain in God’s agape love, in what are you choosing to remain? SELF-LOVE! And self-love always brings self-destruction and torture with it. God is pretty smart in the things that He tells us.

11 Let’s make sure we understand this. There is a process in which we may participate, which if we choose to remain beyond introductory stages and stay the course, God will purify us of our tendencies to self- awareness and self-love, to the discovery of Kingdom satisfaction and life! That process doesn’t happen over night. It is often time consuming and painful, but necessary. And if you will follow the Holy Spirit through that process, you will end up dying to yourself and living that love from God that frees us to live properly with others. You can shut it down any time you like and go back to loving yourself – with obvious consequences and forfeitures. Let’ look at the verse again.

12 "We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for (in) us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him." 1 John 4:16 Doesn’t that make the most amazing sense now?