GOD IS LOVE (1 John 4)

I. Up Close and VERY Personal

⁷Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ¹³This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁵If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. ¹⁶God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

II. God’s True Nature

⁹This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.¹⁰This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹⁷This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. ¹⁸There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

III. We Must Show God’s Love to Others

¹¹Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹²No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. ¹⁹We love because he first loved us. ²⁰Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. ²¹And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.