"These Things I've Written..." 1 John 4:7-14

Introduction

Throughout 1 John, we keep coming back to one four-letter word… LOVE!!!

What is love? How does one know true love?

Have you ever though about and examined the moments and situations when love was true for you and when it was false?

The time I bought Jaycie a necklace.

It was at that time I learned a crucial lesson about love. I can love something or someone and it may not love me back.

Today’s scripture tells us what love truly means.

1 John 4:7–14 NASB95

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we 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 seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 14 We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

Verse 8 - “God is love” can be interchanged with “Love is God”.

God summarizes the true meaning of love.

1. Love is Grounded in the Nature of God.

The love of God is often described as the love of a Father.

Children enjoy an adopted relationship. Love flows from a sense of God’s love to us.

All love that exists from God is like a fountain.

The reason that we know God is through a demonstration of His love.

Love is the expression of His nature.

Since God is the source of love and all true love derives from Him, all our love ought to flow the way to others.

While the origin of love is in the being of God, the manifestation of love is the coming of Christ.

Bad relationships have taught people not to trust in God. This is the opposite of what is should be. Instead, bad relationships should teach us to trust in God more. He teaches the essence of true love. It would teach us to treat others differently.

God is love. Love is God. You have access to a love that the rest of the world has not tasted.

Invest your life in falling more in love with Him so that you can learn how to love others.

2. God’s Love Desires the Best of People.

God’s ultimate expression of love was sending Jesus Christ into this world.

John 3:16–17 NASB95

16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

This is why denying Jesus is rejecting God’s love.

Propitiation (Verse 10)

To remove an obstacle in man’s part for His relationship with God.

Greek Word (hilasma). Christ is the “propitiation” because by His becoming our substitute and assuming our obligations, he removed our guilt, covered it, by the punishment that He went through.

In order to be the Savior of the world, the lamb took away the sin of the world.

There is no greater record of guilt relieved in the history of the world.

In the ancient world outside of Christianity, it was appropriate to love only those who were regarded as worthy of being loved.

We beg God for mercy but choose only to love those who we decide is worthy of being loved.

God loves sinners who are unworthy of His love, and live in subject to wrath. He loved us and sent Jesus to rescue us, not because we are lovable, but because He is love.

He desires to seek and save the lost. To reclaim those who wander. He wants fellowship with the hearts of the redeemed. He wants to grow their ability to love and show race. He wants to cleans and purge them by discipline and trial that they may be morally pure. He wants to create a community of peace founded on God’s love towards all men.

He loves too well to be content with anything but the best that there is in us.

3. God’s Love Acts on Behalf of People.

No one has seen God at any time.

God is Spirit. ()

He’s unapproachable ()

The vision of God who once was revealed in His son, now reveals Himself in His people if and when they love each other.

True love returned back to God means not only that God lives in us but also that His love is made complete in us.

It is by the Spirit that we know God and by the Spirit that we are enabled to love.

John that testifies that He saw Jesus in the flesh.

At that time, there were still eye witnesses of Jesus Christ in the flesh.

Think about this. There were many Jews who saw Jesus in the flesh and did not believe. Their foolish hearts were blind.

How then is Christ to be seen?

“Jesus is not seen by the bodily, but by the spiritual eyes” - Augustine of Hippo.

It is God’s plan for people to believe in the name of Jesus Christ without actually seeing Him.

God is using us as vessels for the Holy Spirit to display Jesus to the rest of the world.

Are you available to Him?

Is the lid close on your life?