1 John 4
1. God’s love for you defines Him.
First, in verse 7, love is from God; then verse 8 ends with: God is love.
How can there be a God who really loves and cares about us? But John insists without hesitation, God is love. The Bible declares,God Himself not only to be the Omnipotent Creator, but also as the very Personal God as well.
2. God’s love for you moves Him.
One of the huge differences between the kind of love we offer each other and God’s love is, His moves Him to act.
Christ’s coming had zero to do with responding to some signal of love from us. You and I had no love for God. But, verse 10 says again, He loved us. Therefore He moved. Christ’s sacrificial blood-offering for sin
grew out of God’s grace-driven love. Love meant God could not leave us as we were. You and I owed a staggering debt that none of us could ever pay. And Jesus paid.
3. God’s love for you requires your response.
We love, John says, because He first loved us. The NT says there are two responses to being loved by God. The most reasonable response is to love Him in return. Jesus said, the highest calling God puts on your life is that you love the Lord your God with all your mind and heart and soul and strength. The second response is that we love other people. If God so loved us ,and He has, then we ought also to love one another. God doesn’t ask us to invent love on our own, He simply requires us to give to others what He gave and gives us.
God’s love! You don’t just receive it, you put it to work. The reason many of us are still looking for ways to get our love need met is because we don’t let God’s love flow through us.
Romans 5:8, While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. John 3:16, For God so loved the world. 1 John 2:2, He Himself -- Jesus -- is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world.
1. God’s love for you defines Him.
First, in verse 7, love is from God; then verse 8 ends with: God is love.
How can there be a God who really loves and cares about us? But John insists without hesitation, God is love. The Bible declares,God Himself not only to be the Omnipotent Creator, but also as the very Personal God as well.
2. God’s love for you moves Him.
One of the huge differences between the kind of love we offer each other and God’s love is, His moves Him to act.
Christ’s coming had zero to do with responding to some signal of love from us. You and I had no love for God. But, verse 10 says again, He loved us. Therefore He moved. Christ’s sacrificial blood-offering for sin
grew out of God’s grace-driven love. Love meant God could not leave us as we were. You and I owed a staggering debt that none of us could ever pay. And Jesus paid.
3. God’s love for you requires your response.
We love, John says, because He first loved us. The NT says there are two responses to being loved by God. The most reasonable response is to love Him in return. Jesus said, the highest calling God puts on your life is that you love the Lord your God with all your mind and heart and soul and strength. The second response is that we love other people. If God so loved us ,and He has, then we ought also to love one another. God doesn’t ask us to invent love on our own, He simply requires us to give to others what He gave and gives us.
God’s love! You don’t just receive it, you put it to work. The reason many of us are still looking for ways to get our love need met is because we don’t let God’s love flow through us.
Romans 5:8, While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. John 3:16, For God so loved the world. 1 John 2:2, He Himself -- Jesus -- is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world.
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