I John 4 {Conclusion}

by | Jan 21, 2016

“And this commandment have we from Him, that he who loves God love his brother also.”  1 John 4:21

images (2)We have reached the end of our chapter in 1st. John!  Way to go y’all! 

How does this chapter wrap up after all the great truths that we have been delving into?  Let’s take a look at some of the highlights from each verse:

• We are dead in Christ– and have been given power and a glorious hope through His resurrection! {Gal. 2:20}

• Biblical “loving without limits” {1 Cor. 13}

• Sharing the “truth in love”

• Love says “no to self…yes to God” Love wars against the flesh {1 John 4:4}

• “Love is the strongest and most effective weapon we have”

• We must know God, so that we can know truth!

• Love is not a “thing”, love is a Being!  God Himself= love. “. God in us equates love in us”.  “Real love shows  the world that you are a disciple of Jesus” {John 13:35}

• Once we were dead in sin, but now we live in Christ because of God’s great love for us.

• Apart from Jesus Christ we do not have the power to love others…to *truly* love others! {John 15:5}

• Our ability to love God comes directly from the fact that He loved us first.

• Love is the evidence that Christ dwells in us  {John 13:35}. Love is the fulfillment of the law– it is the greatest commandment!  {Matthew 22}

• “Loving God is …made tangible in the act of loving others. God’s love can overflow out from us to others when we are consumed in His love.

• It is in God’s nature to love deeply and dangerously…and that is the kind of love that He calls *us* to!

• “If God is love and I am his child, then I am loved.”  We need to live in the power of “I am loved” all the time!

• “To experience God’s provision of salvation we cannot be distant spectators…it is me giving myself to Him, and receiving Him to myself”.

• [Do] you think love is impossible? Yes it is… for you! But not for the One living IN you, and IN WHOM you live!  Love is supernatural.

• God is love– You cannot experience real love outside of Christ, so press hard into Christ and you will find love. His love has always been there for you, you just need to look for it.”

• We can have boldness…because Christ is our justice.  {Romans 3:25}

• “To let the power and the reality of His strong love conquer us day by day, decision by decision. To come to “know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God”. (Ephesians 3:19)

• Fear v. Love:
Fear and love – only one can rule your life at a time. Love will cast out fear. Or fear will cast out love. As Joni Eareckson Tada said,“Let the matchless love of God sweep away your doubts and fears. You already have God’s attention, and you will never lose it.”

• “God is love, without Him we cannot truly love. Love sent him to earth to die! God’s Love has redeemed us to himself for those who have put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ…”

• “We serve a God of love. Jesus loved us so much, that He was willing to lay down His life, and suffer a brutal death in our place, when we were His enemy. That is the meaning of perfect love. It is easy to love someone who loves you, but God’s word says in Matthew 5:46, “For if ye love him which love you, what reward have ye?”
“It is only (when) we allow God to work His perfect love in us, that we can truly see someone as He sees them”
“On our own strength, we are incapable of loving anyone. It is only through the power of Jesus, who gives us that gift.”

A condensed summary of this chapter could be as follows:

1. Test the spirits: be aware of and do not believe false prophets!
2. You are adopted as children of God, and have power through the blood of Jesus Christ– “greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world”.
3. God hears us.
4. We are to love because God is love, and in loving like Him, we can know Him.
5. True love is very self-sacrificing!
6. We owe a debt to love one another because we have been so greatly loved.
7. If we love one another, and confess  that Jesus is the son of God, than God will dwell in us and we in Him, and His love will be perfected in us.
8. Perfect Love casts out all fears!
9. Our ability to love God, and others, comes only because “He first loved us”.
10. Loving God and hating your “brother” cannot coexist. We have been commanded of God that if we love Him, we are to also love our “brother”.

What things have you learned form this study, and meditating on this portion of scripture?  Has God shown you areas of weakness in your life when it comes to who and how you love?  Are you encouraged and challenged to consciously work at light-sunset-man-beachbeing so enraptured with God’s great love for you, that it spills over into the lives of those around you?  This may all seem a bit overwhelming to you, but truly friend, if you just focus on loving God as He loves you, the magnitude of His greatness will overflow you to the point that “Christ in you” is able to “love the unlovable”….and when the world sees that, it takes notice. And if you are asked about it and respond with humility and confessing “that Jesus is the Son of God”, then God’s love will be perfected in you.   What an awesome thing!

Blessings as you journey on friends– may you grow in your walk with God day by day, and with each passing moment!

“And the LORD make you to increase and abound in love towards one another, and towards all men…”

1 Thessalonians 3:12

~Mallory Devine

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