By Grace I am Lovable
1 John 4: 7- 19
God’s Love and Ours
1Jn 4:7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
1Jn 4:8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
1Jn 4:9 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.
1Jn 4:10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
1Jn 4:11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
1Jn 4:12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
1Jn 4:13 We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
1Jn 4:14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
1Jn 4:15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.
1Jn 4:16 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.
1Jn 4:17 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.
1Jn 4:18 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.
1Jn 4:19 We love because he first loved us.
Illustration
o A Spanish father wanted to have the estranged son come back home.
o So he put a paper add “Paco meet me at the Hotel Montana square, Tuesday 12 noon All is forgiven. I love you – Papa”
o Paco is a common name in Spain
o On Tuesday when he turned up at the Hotel square – there were 800 young men named Paco waiting for their fathers
o Everybody wants love, Everybody needs love,
o And when we think of love, from the human perspective, what do we think of
“I will love you if...”
“I will love you as long...”
What is it about God’s love that is different?
There are no “if’s” & “as long’s”
• God’s love is consistent (everlasting)
o Jeremiah 31:3 “I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore I have drawn you with loving kindness.” NASB"
o In this passage, God is making specific reference to Israel’s time during the exodus - Israel was somewhat less committed to God.
o Yet God said to them, and to us, “I have loved you with an everlasting”
1. Never ending
2. Not works based,
3. Not a lovability based,
4. But rather, “everlasting” without end love
o God’s love is consistent, based solely on the fact that God is love.
o And since God’s love is consistent, it is also unconditional.
• God love is unconditional,
o Listen to what Christ said in Luke 6:35-36 - “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High: FOR He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
o Did you here it clearly “For He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.”
o “God loves even those who do not demonstrate love toward Him.”
The idea is that God loves us, without considering what we have done, are doing, or will do.
God does not love like man.
God loves us consistently,
God loves us unconditional
God loves us, because of His grace.
There is nothing we can do to make God love us more
There is nothing we can do to make God love us less – Philip Yancey
