What Love is All
About. – 1 John 4:7-12
Intro: Today we are
returning to the Book of 1 John and today we are exploring what true love is
all about from John’s and the Bible’s perspective. These verses in 1 John is the essence of this
book.
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and
knows God.
1. John begins with
his familiar greeting. Dear friends, or
my beloved. Then he gives
This exhortation,
“Let us love one another.” John believed
and expressed this
Exhortation in
every book he wrote. John truly believed
that grace and mercy would
Be given even in
times of wrath.
2. He states three
things about love which we will look at for a moment. First, love
Comes from God. It is the essence of Him. It is a communicated attribute of Him. It
Is pure,
unselfish love given without any expectation of being returned in like manner.
Secondly, everyone
that loves is born of God. They
have responded to the love given
To them through
Jesus Christ. Quote John 3:16. When one is born of God or
Regenerated. Their old heart of sin with its
hatred, hurt, unforgiveness and other
Evils associated
with it is gone and it has been replaced with a new heart that is in
Tune with God. Do guitar tuning experiment. Those born of God have a desire to
love.
3. Lastly, they that
love, know God. It is a one to one
relationship. They follow
Matt 22:37-40. They have started with God. It is Him they love and this allows them
To love all.
Whoever does not love does not know God because God is love.
1. John is very black and white on his outlook here. His frankness or bluntness makes it
Clear. If a person does not love, they do not know
God. There is no room for hate,
bitterness and prolonged
anger in a believer’s life.
2. God is love.
It is who He is. It is part of
His character. The essence of His
being.
Love begins with
Him and will never be truly experienced in its fullness or
Completeness until
we become one with Him through Christ.
3. God is patient and
kind. He does not envy, boast or is
proud. He is not rude, self-
Seeking, or
easily angered. He keeps no records of
wrong, or delights in evil. He
Rejoices in
truth, protects, trusts, hopes and perseveres.
He never fails.
4. The Ladies Home
Journal wrote, “Those who love deeply never grow old, they may
Die of old age,
but they die young.”
This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world
that we might live through Him. This is
Love: Not that we loved God, but that He
loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
1. Jesus was God’s greatest
expression of love. God sent His
only son. John as we
Have learned saw
Jesus as the only saviour. He presented
Jesus as God. The perfect
John, if you saw
Jesus you saw the Father and vice versa.
2. John states here that true
life is lived through Him. John
saw people living sub par
Lives until they
became believers. John stated in John
10:10, “that Jesus came to
Give life and to
give it abundantly. No profession,
lifestyle, dream and destiny is fully
Realized until
your come to know Jesus. Life is hollow,
empty and pointless until you
Come to know
Jesus Christ as far as John was concerned.
3. This
is love. John states with
confidence, frankness and simplicity.
Remember John’s
Vocabulary for
this book is no larger than 600 words.
He wanted to make this book
Simple enough
that a child could understand it. Jesus
is God’s expression of love.
4. John
then says, Not that we loved Him but He loved us. Redemptive love does not
Begin with us. We did not seek salvation or even realize
that we even needed it. It
Began with
God. He sought us. Jesus said, “I have come to seek and save the
lost.”
Jesus stated that
the sick seek a doctor not those that are well.
Until we realize that
We are sick with
sin and evil we will not seek salvation.
Talk about my conversion.
5. John closes these
two verses, telling his audience and readers that Jesus is the
Atoning sacrifice for our
sins. Atonement which means to
reconcile. To bring two
Warring parties together. It means making a way for peace. Jesus made peace
Between God and
man. Our sin separated us from God. Jesus became the bridge
Between us and
God. In a few minutes, we will be celebrating the means of how that
Happened. Through
His broken body and shed blood.
Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
1. John comes back to
his theme of loving one another. As one
preacher said, ‘if you
Love one another
you are loving God. Jesus says in Jn
13:35, “we are his disciples,
When we love one
another.” He commands us to love one
another in Jn 15:17.
2. Love
is not an option for the believer but a command, an expectation and expression
Of our love for God.
3. John says because
God loved us, we can love others. He
makes it possible for us to
Love.
No one has ever seen God, but if we love each other, God lives in us
and His love is made complete in us.
1. John was the only
New Testament writer that actually explain the physical make up of
God if we can
call it. In John 4:24 we learn from
Jesus, that God is Spirit, He has no
Physical body and He cannot
be seen. They who worship Him must
worship Him in
Spirit and truth. Because He is Spirit, He is omniscience, knows
all, Omni-present, is
Everywhere,
eternal, lives forever and has no beginning or end. He is the essence of
Good, truth,
love, purity, peace, gentleness, kindness, patience, faithfulness, joy and
Self
control.
2. If we
love one another, God lives in us. Love
is the physical expression of God.
When we love we show God’s
life in us. Love is both unseen
and seen. It starts with
Loving God with
every fibre of your being. Then choosing
to love others in the same
Way. John closes by saying, “His love his made
complete in us. This is a scary
Thought. God’s physical expression of love is made
complete in us.
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