LOVE ONE ANOTHER
1 John 4:7-21
What is love?
• Centered in the will.
• Biblical meaning of love = Not based on emotions, feelings.
• A decision or choice that one makes.
• Selfless, sacrificial, giving.
• For the benefit of the object being loved.
Why Love One Another?
1. We Love One Another Because It Demonstrates Our Spiritual Origin – v 7
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
Love comes from God
Everyone who loves has been born of God.
The biblical meaning of love is a divine character trait. We cannot possess this apart from the new birth, a spiritual experience with its origin only from the Spirit.
Love is risky, risk of ridicule, rejection. It has a price ... it costs Jesus His life. It has a price, it cost the Father, His Son. The Father pays the price, the Son obeys and sacrifices Himself. It’s most difficult to sacrifice your children, easier to sacrifice yourself.
2. We Love One Another Because It Demonstrates Our Relationship With God – v 8-12
Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
9 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.
10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
Love expressed is giving, offering for the benefit of the object.
Our standard of loving others = since God so loved us …
3. We Love One Another Because It Demonstrates That God’s Love Has Been Made Complete In Us – v 12
12 No-one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
God’s love = spiritual growth, growing in love … when we love one another … God’s love is made complete in US.
4. We Love One Another Because It Demonstrates Our Trust in God – v 13-16
13 We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world.
15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.
16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.
5. We Love One Another Because It Results in God’s approval – v 17
17 In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.
6. We Love One Another Because It Transforms Us Into Christ’s Likeness – v 17
17 In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.
7. We Love One Another Because Love Drives Out Fear – v 18.
18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
8. We Love One Another Because It Demonstrates Our Gratitude to Christ’s Love – v 19
19 We love because he first loved us.
9. We Love One Another Because It Demonstrates Our Love For God – v 20
20 If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.
10. We Love One Another Because It Demonstrates Our Obedience To God – v 21
21 And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
John 13:34-35
34 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
Conclusion
