1. The Great Command Demonstrated
1 John 4:7-12

2. Remember 1 John 3:23
And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.

3. Jesus Gave The Greatest Commands
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
Is anything more important than our love?

4. God Is Love
1 John 4: Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
The fact stated
The origin of love

5. What God IS: Deut. 4:24 – God is a consuming fire.
Deut. 4:31 – God is a merciful God.
Deut. 33:27 – God is your refuge.
2 Sam. 22:3 – God is my Rock.
Job 36:5 – God is mighty.
Psalm 7:11 – God is a righteous judge.
Psalm 47:7 – God is the King of the earth.
Psalm 99:9 – God is holy.
John 4:24 – God is Spirit.
1 Cor. 1:9 – God is faithful.
2 Thes. 1:6 – God is just.

6. How Do We Know God is love?
1 John 4: 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. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

7. Our Christian Obligation to Love
1 John 4:7 --Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.
We are commanded to love.

8. Love Demonstrates Our Relationship with God
Vs Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

9. The Direction and Progression of our love
Vs This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

10. And the greatest of these is LOVE!
1 Cor. 13: If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

11. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.