God is love. Are we? 1 John 4:7-13

Introduction

How many of us have ever said something like “I love chocolate” or “I love the Texas Rangers”?

All of us right? In the bible the word for that kind of love is eros which is love based off feeling.

Another type of love mentioned in the Bible is Philia which is brotherly love, this is the love based on our relationship

And then we come to the only word that describes Gods love towards us, Agape. This is the highest form of love and it is love that expects nothing in return.

Its the Love that God has for us and His Son, and here we find it as one of the attributes of God, and an attribute that every Christian should have as well

The source of our love vs. 7-8

Verse 7

John starts out this section with the word beloved again. The word beloved shows the close relationship that he had with these believers.

Let us love one another

As Christians we should have love for one another that doesn’t depend on what we get in return.

Just as Jesus loved us, we should love others

Then he tells us why For God is of love

The word of means from or out of so this could be read as love is from God. It is impossible to love like God without that love coming from God.

Some get so caught up on God being love that they forget all of his attributes. While God is love, He is Just, Hebrews calls him a consuming fire and earlier in 1 John he tells us that God is light in him is no darkness at all. His love doesn’t overpower His other attributes.

Everyone that Loves like God is born of God and knows God

The more we know God, the more we will love like God. We must know God to love like God.

God’s love is so great that we should love from the overflow of God’s love

Verse 8

In verse 8 John gives us the flip side to not loving like God

He that loveth not knoweth not God.

When you know God, you will love like him.

The amazing thing about God’s love for us is it doesn’t depend on anything. He isn’t like us he doesn’t keep score of our faults and our failures.

One of my favorite pictures of God’s love is the Parable of the Prodigal Son.

Read Luke 15:11-24.

The prodigal son came to his dad and asked him for his inheritance, by doing this he was wishing his father was dead. He took his inheritance and spent it on what the Bible calls riotous living and ended up in the pig pen, which for jewish culture this would be the lowest of lows. As he is in the pig pen, he comes to himself, realizing that even the servants in his dads house have it better than him. So he begins rehersing what he is going to say to his dad when he gets home. “I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son: Make me as one of thy hired servants.”

In reality the father could’ve stoned him for his disrespect or maybe disowned him, but instead he sees his son coming and he runs to him with arms wide open.

Then we see the opposite of God’s love shown through the older brother in this story, who instead of rejoicing that his brother was home, got upset with his dad for welcoming him back, and in a selfish pity party made his dad leave the party to try to get him to come in

Luke 15:25-32.

The Expression of God’s Love vs. 9-10

Verse 9

Here John tells them how God’s love was manifested or revealed to them, and we can see his love is still being revealed to us even today.

Romans 5:8 “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

God sent his only begotten son into the world

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

We See the reason God sent his son into the world is so we can live through him

1 John 5:11 “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.”

Verse 10

Herein- In this

Here John says “in this is love”

One important truth that all of us must learn is that it is impossible to love God, before he loves you.

God has loved us from eternity past, and even before the world began he had a plan for our redemption.

Before Adam and Eve sinned he had a plan, before I was born he had a plan for my life, I think about what Jeremiah said in Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.”

God loves us so much that He sent his Son for us.

The Bible tells us that God sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins

The word propitiation means that Christ was the substitutionary sacrifice to satisfy both God’s justice and love.

1 John 2:2 “And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”

Notice the word “the” before propitiation, it doesn’t say a propitiation it says the propitiation. Jesus wasn’t a way to satisfy Gods justice and love he was the one and only way that it could be satisfied.

The expression of our love vs. 11-13

Verse 11

Because God loves us we should love others

John 13:34 “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.”

Matthew 18:21–33.

Verse 12

Jesus manifested Gods love toward us, he was literally God in the flesh, and we learned about God through Jesus

Likewise people should learn about the love of God through our life, and we show that love by loving one another.

Through our love for others, Gods love perfected or completed in us.

Verse 13

We can know that God lives in us and we live in Him through the Holy spirit that he gave us

1 John 3:24 “And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.”

The fruit of the Spirit, the first characteristic is love.

Conclusion

Do we love like God?