1 John 4:7-21, God Is Love [New Century Version]
7 Dear friends, we should love each other, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has become God’s child and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love to us: He sent his one and only Son into the world so that we could have life through him. 10 This is what real love is: It is not our love for God; it is God’s love for us. He sent his Son to die in our place to take away our sins.
11 Dear friends, if God loved us that much we also should love each other. 12 No one has ever seen God, but if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is made perfect in us.
13 We know that we live in God and he lives in us, because he gave us his Spirit. 14 We have seen and can testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God has God living inside, and that person lives in God. 16 And so we know the love that God has for us, and we trust that love.
God is love. Those who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. 17 This is how love is made perfect in us: that we can be without fear on the day God judges us, because in this world we are like him. 18 Where God’s love is, there is no fear, because God’s perfect love drives out fear. It is punishment that makes a person fear, so love is not made perfect in the person who fears.
19 We love because God first loved us. 20 If people say, “I love God,” but hate their brothers or sisters, they are liars. Those who do not love their brothers and sisters, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have never seen. 21 And God gave us this command: Those who love God must also love their brothers and sisters.
Memory Verse: 1 John 4:19, 20
19 We love because God first loved us. 20 If people say, “I love God,” but hate their brothers or sisters, they are liars. Those who do not love their brothers and sisters, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have never seen.
LOVING GOD AND PEOPLE IDENTIFIES A PERSON AS A TRUE CHRISTIAN
1 John 4:7-21, God Is Love [New Century Version]
IT IS THE NATURE OF CHRISTIANS TO LOVE.
1 John 4:7-8, 19-21, [New Century Version]
7 Dear friends, we should love each other, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has become God’s child and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
19 We love because God first loved us. 20 If people say, “I love God,” but hate their brothers or sisters, they are liars. Those who do not love their brothers and sisters, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have never seen. 21 And God gave us this command: Those who love God must also love their brothers and sisters.
1 Thessalonians 4:9-12 [NLT]
But we don’t need to write to you about the importance of loving each other, for God himself has taught you to love one another. Indeed, you already show your love for all the believers throughout Macedonia. Even so, dear brothers and sisters, we urge you to love them even more.
Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands, just as we instructed you before. Then people who are not believers will respect the way you live, and you will not need to depend on others.
LOVING GOD AND PEOPLE IDENTIFIES A PERSON AS A TRUE CHRISTIAN
1. IT IS THE NATURE OF CHRISTIANS TO LOVE.
2. IT IS THE PRIVILEGE OF CHRISTIANS TO RECEIVE GOD’S LOVE.
3. IT IS THE PRIVILEGE OF CHRISTIANS TO RECEIVE GOD’S LOVE.
1 John 4:9-10, [New Century Version]
9 This is how God showed his love to us:
He sent his one and only Son into the world so that we could have life through him.
10 This is what real love is: It is not our love for God; it is God’s love for us. He sent his Son to die in our place to take away our sins.
Romans 5:8 [NCV]
8 But God shows his great love for us in this way: Christ died for us while we were still sinners.
LOVING GOD AND PEOPLE IDENTIFIES A PERSON AS A TRUE CHRISTIAN
IT IS THE NATURE OF CHRISTIANS TO LOVE. IT IS THE PRIVILEGE OF CHRISTIANS TO RECEIVE GOD’S LOVE. IT IS THE JOY OF CHRISTIANS TO SHARE GOD’S LOVE.
IT IS THE JOY OF CHRISTIANS TO SHARE GOD’S LOVE.
1 John 4:11-18, God Is Love [New Century Version]
Loving fellow believers is a response to GOD’s love for us.
1 John 4:11-12
11 Dear friends, if God loved us that much we also should love each other. 12 No one has ever seen God, but if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is made perfect in us.
Loving fellow believers is an expression of GOD’s Spirit in us.
1 John 4:13-16
13 We know that we live in God and he lives in us, because he gave us his Spirit. 14 We have seen and can testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God has God living inside, and that person lives in God. 16 And so we know the love that God has for us, and we trust that love.
God is love. Those who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.
Loving others is the God-given ability to overcome the fear of GOD’s judgment
1 John 4:17-18
17 This is how love is made perfect in us:
that we can be without fear on the day God judges us, because in this world we are like him. 18 Where God’s love is, there is no fear, because God’s perfect love drives out fear. It is punishment that makes a person fear, so love is not made perfect in the person who fears.
2 Peter 1:3-8 [NLT]
3By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. 4And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.
5In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, 6and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, 7and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.
8The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.
LOVING GOD AND PEOPLE IDENTIFIES A PERSON AS A TRUE CHRISTIAN
1. IT IS THE NATURE OF CHRISTIANS TO LOVE.
2. IT IS THE PRIVILEGE OF CHRISTIANS TO RECEIVE GOD’S LOVE.
3. IT IS THE JOY OF CHRISTIANS TO SHARE GOD’S LOVE.