Prepare for Sunday morning worship by using the guide below.
1 John 4:7-12
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
Watch the Sermon
Summary: As we continue our series on Biblical Community, this Sunday we’ll consider “Love One Another” from John’s first letter. The churches John was addressing had just recently passed through some hard times. A group teaching different things had departed from them, and those who remained were in some sense still reeling from the event. So John is shoring them up, bolstering their faith, declaring what identifies a genuine Christian. One of those things is love. He writes in 3:14 – “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers.” John tells them three times in this passage: “love one another.” In fact, this is the third time John has returned to this theme of love in his letter. There’s an emphasis here we need to recognize. He grounds our love for one another in God’s very nature, for “God is love.” God’s love for us is supremely seen in the atoning work of the Son. John urges his readers to love in the same way, to seek the good of one another, even at great personal cost. When we do this, God’s love is perfected, or made complete, in us, for all the world to see.
Review and Apply
Why is love (or the act of loving) proof that we are born of God and know God?
Does this mean that apart from God we can’t really love?
What does it mean that “God is love”?
How does our culture define love? How have differing views of love affected your relationships?
When was the last time you loved someone at personal cost?
What are some specific ways you can practice loving others at church or in your home?
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