The small letter of 1 John is chalk-full of the word, “love.” In 105 verses, there are 46 uses of “love”—an astounding 27 of which are in two paragraphs (1 John 4:7-21, ESV). God says more about love than what’s here, but this is extremely potent and helpful.
I want to encourage Christians in your resolve to stand firm in the true love of God! Do not be swayed by others’ description of “love,” but have confidence in God’s perfect and complete love through Jesus and shown to one another. (Even though we don’t love perfectly all the time…we strive to.)
1. Love one another since love is from God, through Jesus Christ (verses 7, 9, 10, 14).
2. Whoever loves, according to God’s love, is a child of God and whoever does not love according to God’s love is not a child of God (7-8, 13, 16-21).
3. God showed us (modeled, demonstrated) true love by sending His Son, Jesus, to save those who trust Him alone for salvation. Specifically, Jesus’ lived perfectly and died sacrificially to pay the true penalty of death each and every one of us deserve for our sin (refusal to worship God). God loved us when we could not have been worse or further from him than we were.
4. Christians’ love for God and one another is the way God intends to show Himself to those who don’t yet know Him (12).
5. Since God took the initiative in loving us sacrificially, Christians are commanded, enabled, and empowered to love through the Holy Spirit (10-11, 13).
6. Whoever abides in, lives in keeping with, God’s love abides in God (or has ongoing and good fellowship with God) since God is love (16).
7. Perfect love (given from God) casts out fear (or throws it far away) (17-18). There is a lot of fear in our world. This fear often comes from our refusal to surrender to live in the ways God has instructed us—according to His good commands.
Though we are more prosperous and secure and have more safety than almost any society in history, safety, security, and personal freedom to live as one pleases have become the “gods” of our day. Professor Frank Furedi refers to our culture as a “paradox of a safe society” and persuasively says, “Moral confusion in society has led to an inability to deal with fear, a rise in anxiety, and given rise to the number of protective (cultural) fences erected around us” (and he does not even profess to be a Christian)!
The fear so predominant in our world arises from a refusal to fear (revere, worship) God as we were created to. As we try to avoid the primary good fear of God, we find many other fears plaguing us as a society.
The remedy? Lovingly fear God, whose perfect love is then poured into our hearts (souls) and casts out the ultimate fear of judgment! This is good news!
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