Introduction
- I wanted to do a lesson in the spirit of the New Year approaching.
- What is one big lesson you have learned this year? (Share last to tie it into the introduction of the lesson)
- Actually, mine came recently—I know it is one of my biggest lessons of the year when I have tears with God (partly because I am not an emotional person).
With the many new stages of life this past year, I am convicted of an old lesson in a new way, and I want to share that with you.
We see it in 1John 4:7-21 (so please turn there).
i. I decided to make it the theme of my life when I first got convicted.
ii. It hit me double-time because I know that I have drifted from the focus God wants me to have.
iii. Before getting into the passage and the points I want to make, first understand: - These are simple points of logic that we all know, and really it is the basic definition of Christianity given by the Holy Spirit through the apostle John.
- 1John 4:7-21 HCSB:
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His One and Only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and His love is perfected in us. 13 This is how we know that we remain in Him and He in us: He has given to us from His Spirit. 14 And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God—God remains in him and he in God. 16 And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. 17 In this, love is perfected with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; for we are as He is in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears has not reached perfection 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 the person who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And we have this command from Him: the one who loves God must also love his brother.
1. Love is from God
Since we’re mature, lets look at the 4 concepts of love in the Greek (you’ll read about these in Greek Poetry and Philosophy):
i. Friendship-love is philia (Philosophy means love of knowledge)
ii. Family-affection is storge
iii. Sexual-love is eros
iv. Agape is sacrificial love
- Which one do you think is the type of love always mentioned in 1John?
i. Agape - How is agape defined? Who defines it—theologians, philosophers, psychologists, scholars, etc.?
i. Agape love is defined by God’s action in Christ Jesus! - With that in mind, how is agape-love deeper than any other concept of love in your life? (In other words) Looking at all the other concepts of love, which there are probably many more out there than these Greek definitions, how is greater love really greater in your understanding?
2. God is Love (It would probably be New Age to say the opposite: Love is God) [verses 8-9 mainly]
- Love in the English language is used as a verb and an adjective. I guess in poetry or figurative speech it is used as a noun.
- How is God Love?
i. NASB uses the word “manifested” for what the NIV uses “showed,” and another is “revealed.”
ii. John uses the same word in 1John 1:1-4 (read).
iii. There is a huge reason why John 13:34-35 (read) a serious commandment.
iv. Because—greater/fullness of—“love” is God’s emphasis of how He reveals Himself.
Three things no fear in this kind of love:
i. We do not fear Him because we now know Him
ii. We should never doubt God’s intentions because the Cross is the loudest expression of love!
iii. When we are living right, not perfect but walking in the light, our hearts are at peace (Heb. 9:14). - Over the weekend Vanessa and I attended worship service in the North Coast Region of the SDCOC, where Kai Foster gave a great lesson about living to the full—meaning a full relationship with God.
i. Because of how the message affected me with what I’ve been going through, I want to take that a step further with the next point.
3. Abiding in love is Abiding in God [mainly verses 11-12, 19-21]
- We don’t have to work hard to make this point because the Scriptures make it pretty clear here.
- All we can do is get convicted, repent, and rely on God’s love for us to love others where we do not love.
- Other than this passage, let me read where God’s word really convicts me on that point
i. 1John 3:16-20 and James 2:14-17
1. Two of the most convicting passages in the Bible, and I think God meant it that way.
2. But, how are we going to respond? What are we going to do about it?
ii. We probably first need to go back to 1John 4:16, relying on the love God has for us.
4. Abiding in love is how God abides in us [mainly verses 13-18]
- Are you a person who is insecure about how God feels about you?
- Maybe you are not abiding in love? Maybe you just need the assurance offered by God’s word here?
i. There is a kind of love in our lives now that makes us different, a people of God, and by this love we are covered, sealed, assured.
ii. What am I trying to say?
iii. How is this passage offering us assurance of a promise connected with living in love?
iv. How is the Holy Spirit involved?
Practicals:
As you are reflecting on the previous year and getting ready to go into the New Year, make it very simple for yourself.
How have I been???
i. Growing to know God’s love for me.
ii. Growing to rely on God’s love for me.
iii. Growing to live a life more full of love.
Make a commitment to do so in the coming year.
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