Why Believers Should Love One Another

Because He First Loved Us

Romans 5:8 While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

John 3:16 If God loved the world enough to send Jesus to die for us, shouldn’t we love each other as well?

1 John 4:11 We ought also to love one another.

Because He Commands Us

1 John 3:23 This is His commandment: Believe on Him and love each other.

Because He Dwells Within Us

1 John 4:12 A sign of God living inside us is our love for one another. His love is perfected (completed, or finished) in us when we love one another.

A Christian who doesn’t love others is a Christian in name only, but not in reality.

Because We Have Passed from Death to Life

1 John 3:14 “He that loveth not his brother” still lives in a state of sin and death. God gives us a new life, and it’s full of love.

Because We are no Longer Children of the Devil

1 John 3:10 “In this the children of God are manifest” — manifest means easily seen or recognized

If we do righteousness and love others, we are manifest as children of God. If we do unrighteousness and don’t love others, we are manifest as children of the devil.

On our own it’s not easy to love one another — in fact it’s impossible. Only when we have the love of God living inside us are we able to see others as special and lovable — and that’s because we recognize that God loves us even when we are not lovable because of sin.