GODS LOVE LIVES IN US

1 JOHN 4:8-12

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. 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.

4:8 John says, “God is love,” not “Love is God.” Our world, with its shallow and selfish view of love, has turned these words around and contaminated our understanding of love. The world thinks that love is what makes a person feel good and that it is all right to sacrifice moral principles and others’ rights in order to obtain such “love.” But that isn’t real love; it is the exact opposite—selfishness. And God is not that kind of “love.” Real love is like God, who is holy, just, and perfect. If we truly know God, we will love as he does. 4:9 Jesus is God’s only Son. While all believers are sons and daughters of God, only Jesus lives in this special unique relationship (see John 1:18; 3:16). 4:9-10 Love explains: (1) why God creates—because he loves, he creates people to love; (2) why God cares—because cares—because he loves them, he cares for sinful people; (3) why we are free to choose—God wants a loving response from us; (4) why Christ died—his love for us caused him to offer a solution to the problem of sin; and (5) why we receive eternal life—God’s love expresses itself to us forever. 4:10 Nothing sinful or evil can exist in God’s presence. He is absolute goodness. He cannot overlook, condone, or excuse sin as though it never happened. He loves us, but his love does not make him morally lax. If we trust in Christ, however, we will not have to bear the penalty for our sins (1 Peter 2:24). We will be acquitted (Romans 5:18) by his atoning sacrifice. 4:12 If no one has ever seen God, how can we ever know him? John in his Gospel said, “The one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known” (John 1:18). Jesus is the complete expression of God in human form, and he has revealed God to us. When we love one another, the invisible God reveals himself to others through us, and his love is made complete. Life Application Study Bible NIV

ON THE WAY HOME WALK WITH JESUS and make sure your life is making the revealing sight of GOD loving us and in us as we love others!!!