Why should I love?

Intro:

AG: Are You In Love?

Source unknown

A young man said to his father at breakfast one morning, "Dad, I'm going to get married." "How do you know you're ready to get married?" asked the father. "Are you in love?" "I sure am," said the son. "How do you know you're in love?" asked the father. "Last night as I was kissing my girlfriend good-night, her dog bit me and I didn't feel the pain until I got home."

TS: John returns to the theme of love. Here he expands and give 5 reasons why Christians love.

We love because God is love

We love because God is love

1 John 4:7–8 ESV

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Love is inherent in all God is and all He does.

John urges us to love one another.

This is the main point of this passage

We are to love each other.

As John has discussed love, he has reminded us

it marks us as His disciples

It is a command of Christ and summarizes OT

Love demonstrates we are born of GOd

Love demonstrates we are born of GOd

The absence shows we don’t know God, since God is love.

When we are saved, God enters our lives and begins transforming us into His image.

Love is part of that transformation

Because we receive God’s nature, we reflect His love for others.

God is love, so we love

2. We love to follow the example of God’s sacrificial love

1 John 4:9 ESV

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.

God showed us the ultimate example of love.

John 3:16 ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Not only did He take on flesh, he came as a propitiation.

1 John 4:10 ESV

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.

Our atonement

He appeased God by paying the price for sin

His love was so great, that he went to the cross with no thought the consequences to Himself. He put our needs ahead of His own

Christ became our mercy seat.

Hebrews 9:5 ESV

Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.

.

1 John 4:11 ESV

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

As we love we follow God’s example

Sacrificaially put others needs ahead our own

3. We love because love is the heart of Christian witness.

1 John 4:12 ESV

No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

Love is the way we display God to the world around us

Nobody can see God

He isn’t flesh and blood

Our sin nature means that even if we could physically see Him, it would destroy us as God told Moses.

Yet as they see love, they do see GOD!

MacArthur said:

Love originated in God

Was manifested in His Son

Demonstrated in His people

As we love others, God is full display!

4. We love because love is the Christian's assurance.

1 Jn 4:

1 John 4:13–16 ESV

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

Abiding in God, and His Spirit abiding in us is synonymous with abiding in Love and Love abiding in us.

We know and beleive

the love that God has for us

Assurance grows as we experience God’s love in our lives.

As He transforms us, that new capacity to love unconditionally and sacrificially grows and confirms the reality of God’s love for us.

5. We love because love is the Christian’s confidence in judgment.

1 John 4:17–20 ESV

By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

Love makes us confident in the face of judgment

Love casts out fear

Jesus was God’s son in whom He was pleased

We are also God’s children

We are adopted because of Jesus

We call Him Father and are loved because of Jesus

That is why we have reason to fear.

Again John reminds us, we love becasue He first loved us

Conclusion

Summary of cpt 4

1 John 4:21 ESV

And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.