1 John This is how we know what love is

1 John

This is how we know what love is:

PART 1

Jesus Christ laid down 

his life for us

PART 2

We ought to lay down our 

lives for our brothers

 “If anyone has material possessions and

sees his brother in need but has no pity on him,

how can the love of God be in him?” 1 John 3:17

There are 2 parts to knowing what love is.

It is like a 2 part movie.

Part 1 is so good you will want to see part 2.

Part 1 is experiencing love.

“Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.”

Yes, Jesus did lay down His life for us.

The question is…

How have you and I experienced that love?

How has His love touched your life?

None of the people you love or the things you love

has ever given you as great of love as Christ.

Putting this in perspective is His love for you,

 the greatest joy of your life.

Would you rather be with Him than anything else?

How deeply have you personally

experienced the love of God?

Part 1 of your experiencing His Love (present tense) will

make all the difference in the word in Part 2.

Part 2 of knowing what love is…

Demonstrating Love.

You and I will never understand what love is until we give it.

Every act of love teaches us.

When we demonstrate the love we have experienced

in Christ we begin to see the power and glory of love.

The key to understanding love is found in these words

“laying down our lives”.

Sacrifice and action are foundational to what love is.

The place where part 1 and 2 are played out is the heart.

When Christ lives in us and we live in Him,

our heart is changed.

 

The Holy Spirit He gives us, makes

our hearts sensitive to the truth.

   When our hearts are filled with love

and action, we will be rewarded.  

 We will have…

“We have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask,

because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.”

If you and I call God’s commandments law,

then they are the law of LOVE.

You and I will never feel guilt and condemnation

if we obey God’s commands to love.

Let your heart be at rest in his presences.

“Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.” 1 John 3:18-21

Scripture Reading

1 John 3:16-4:1 NIV

16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 19 This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence 20 whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24 Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us