Jesus Loves His Family, So Should You Series

INTRODUCTION

SLIDE #2

• Can anyone tell me what the most talked about subject in the bible is? According to the last Larry Burkett, it is love. Love is mentioned or referred to in some manner more than any other subject.

• Why do you think this subject is written about so often?

• Could it be that God is serious about the subject?

• Over the last few weeks as we have been looking at 1 John, we have been given five things by John that are required of us if we are going to have fellowship with God:

1. We are called to walk in the light. 1:5-7

2. We are called to accept, repent of and confess our sins. 1:8-10

3. We are called to trust in Jesus. 2:2-1

4. We are called to walk in obedience as we saw last week. 2:3-6

5. This week we are going to look at the last of the five, love of the brethren.

• Sometimes one of the hardest things we must do is to love each other. Sometimes we are not very lovable, we do things to each other, things that many times we do not mean to do, but nevertheless, we have a tendency to hurt one another and get on each others nerves.

• Sometimes it has to be appalling for God to look down to see how we treat one another, it has to be sad for Him to know what we are thinking about one another.

• SLIDE #3 The church was having some trouble when James wrote his letter. In James 4:1-2 we are told the people were fighting and envious of one another.

• Today I hope that we can learn that we are called to love one another and that if you belong to Jesus, that call is not an option.

• It is too easy for us to rationalize why we do not have to really love one another.

• The bottom line is that Jesus loves His family and so should we!

• Today we are going to look at why John calls us to love one another!

• Let us read 1 John 2:7-11 together this morning! READ

SLIDE #4

SERMON

We are to love one another because:

I. THE IDEA IS NOT NEW. V7

SLIDE #5

1. God has always wanted us to love.

• John starts us out by letting us know this command to love one another is not a new commandment nor is it something that originated with him!

• The idea of loving others did not begin when Jesus came; Jesus was the perfect example of love. We will look at this thought a bit more in a few minutes.

• SLIDE #6 1 John 4:8 tells us that God IS love.

• God has always been a God of love!

• Throughout the Old Testament we are told that God is a loving God, that He is full of loving-kindness and compassionate.

• SLIDE #7 Leviticus 19:18 is an example

• You will notice that God was constantly looking to see if we really loved Him or not, but the idea to love is not new.

• When you think about it, how can we do our job to reach people for Jesus if we do not love each other, or if we do not love those who are lost?

• Doesn’t it make sense that God wants us to love one another? Look at the price He paid so that we could be a part of His family? You were bought with a price.

• SLIDE #8 When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was in Mark 12, He responded by saying we are to love God with all we have and then proceeded to says in Mark 12:31 we are to love our neighbor as our self.

• Do you teat something precious better than you do something that is cheap and easy to replace?

• Those who belong to Jesus are neither cheap nor easy to replace, we need to understand that God has always wanted us to love each other! SLIDE #9

2. The word we have heard since we have been saved has told us to love one another!

• John says the commandment is one we have heard from the beginning. The beginning can means since creation, or the beginning of the Law of Moses, or the time the gospel had been preached or since the time of our conversion.

• The context seems to indicate we are speaking of time the gospel was preached.

• Verse 7 speaks of hearing the commandments.

• In this last part of verse 7 John is identifying the source of the authority behind what he is telling us concerning the command about love.