One Another: LOVE (pt.2)
Pastor Reggie Hill
Scripture
1 John 4:7-12 NIV
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. 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.
Big Idea
True, godly love is not a matter of talk, but of action. It is more than kind words, and loving feelings, true love is demonstrated through active compassion that meets real needs in tangible ways. Christians who truly want to reach others for Christ must realize that they might have to meet people’s physical needs before some will be open to receiving help for their spiritual needs.
Questions
Have you ever been in a relationship or friendship with someone whose actions didn't line up with their words? How did that make you feel?
How do you measure love? Would you say there are different "levels" or "kinds" of love?
If God is love, how does this definition of love differ from the way our world defines love?
1 John 4:7 says that love comes from God, do you think it is possible for nonbelievers to understand this true love without knowing God?
Verse 10 shows that God sets the precedent for love, not us. God set the standard and all of our love cannot compare. How has God's love set the precedent in your life? When did you most understand the gravity of God's love?
What do you think it means in verse 12 that "his love is made complete in us"?
Call To Action
Are you facilitating a kind of atmosphere where love can live? (a loving place). How can you?
How would the world look different if we weren't loving others? if we were?
