Gods Love and Ours 1 John 4:721

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Gods Love and Ours!1 John 47-21

• Forest Hills Bible Chapel
• 22 April 2007

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Some Themes of 1 John

• 1 John gives us the proper relationship among
  three Christian Virtues
• Righteousness practicing the truth.
• Love loving God, and loving one another.
• Belief believing, committing oneself to the
  truth as God has revealed it.

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Some Themes of 1 John
Love
Belief
Righteousness
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Some Themes of 1 John

• To have only RIGHTEOUSNESS and BELIEF is to
  reduce Christianity to a mere creed, and to
  foster legalism.
• To have only RIGHTEOUSNESS and LOVE runs the risk
  of a mere human standard, that accepts anyone and
  everyone.
• To have only LOVE and BELIEF runs the risk of not
  have a valid standard for godly living.

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Some Themes of 1 John

• Righteousness God expects us to live lives of
  holiness and godliness.
• Belief God expects us to believe the truth
  that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, and that He has
  come in the flesh.
• Love God expects us to love one another, even
  as He has loved us.

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Some Themes of 1 John

• We know that we know Him if
• We believe that Jesus is the Christ 1 John 51
  Belief.
• We obey His commands 1 John 23
  Righteousness.
• We love our fellow believers 1 John 314 Love.

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Who is God?

• God is Light 1 John 15.
• God is Spirit John 424.
• God is Love 1 John 48.

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1 John 47-21

• 7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love
  comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born
  of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love
  does not know God, because God is love. 9 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. 10 This is love not that we loved
  God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an
  atoning sacrifice for our sins.

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1 John 47-21

• 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also
  ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever
  seen God but if we love one another, God lives
  in us and his love is made complete in us. 13 We
  know that we live in him and he in us, because he
  has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen
  and testify that the Father has sent his Son to
  be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone
  acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God
  lives in him and he in God. 16 And so we know and
  rely on the love God has for us. God is love.
  Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in
  him.

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1 John 47-21

• 17 In this way, love is made complete among us so
  that we will have confidence on the day of
  judgment, because in this world we are like him.
  18 There 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. 19 We love because he first loved us.
  20 If anyone says, I love God, yet hates his
  brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not
  love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love
  God, whom he has not seen. 21 And he has given us
  this command Whoever loves God must also love
  his brother.

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Gods Loveand Ours!

• Our love for one another is evidence that we know
  God vv. 7-8.
• Love is proactive and love initiates God showed
  His love by sending His Son for us vv. 9-10.
• Our love for one another should grow out of Gods
  love for us v. 11.
• We display God to one another by loving one
  another v. 12.

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Gods Loveand Ours!

• Our life of love is lived in the Triune God-
  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit vv. 13-16a.
• We are to live in love because to do so is to
  live in God vv. 16b-18.
• We cannot love God, yet fail to love (or hate) or
  fellow believer vv. 19-21.

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Gods Loveand Ours!

• A final anecdote about the Apostle John
• There is a church tradition, which says, that
  when John was evidently an old man in Ephesus, he
  had to be carried to the church in the arms of
  his disciples. At these meetings, he was
  accustomed to say no more than, "Little children,
  love one another!" After a time, the disciples,
  wearied at always hearing the same words, asked,
  "Master, why do you always say this?" "It is the
  Lord's command," was his reply. "And if this
  alone be done, it is enough!"