Human love is a complex thing. It's flawed and imperfect and can often be conditional and damaging to us. But God's love for us is different; it's perfect, absolute, and ever-unconditional. Through Christ, his Son, we have been redeemed and all our sins forgiven when we receive Christ as Lord and Savior. Abiding in the confidence that comes from God's love[1] removes all doubts and fear. It's the only transforming love that will never diminish or come to an end.

In this episode of the Revelations Podcast, Delaney Dobbs and Beverly Coniaris of She is Becoming Podcast joins us to speak about God’s love. They talk about our role as Christians in speaking His truth and embodying and bringing His love to others. They also differentiate between worldly love and God’s love and affirms the power of having confidence in God’s love.

Tune in now to learn more about what the Scriptures say regarding love. Listen to this episode just for you!

1. Understand what 1 John 4:7-19 means.
2. Learn why you should be confident in God’s love.
3. Be inspired to love others as God loves us.

• More from the Revelations Podcast: Website | Instagram | Apple Podcast
• Connect with Delaney and Beverly: She is Becoming
• She is Becoming episode with Reagan Kramer [02:12]
• S1 | Ep.4 // Children of God (ft. Bev Coniaris)
• Bible Verses:
• 1 John 4:7-19
• John 3:16
• 1 Corinthians 13:4–8a
• Revelation
• 1 Corinthians 13
• John 15:9-12
• Ephesians 2:4-5
• Proverbs 10:12

This Episode is brought to you by: Advanced Medicine Alternatives

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• Delaney and Beverly started the podcast because they wanted a multigenerational perspective on different topics in the Bible.
• They talk about anything and everything related to the Bible.
• Having a multigenerational perspective is unifying. It's important for the Church and culture.
• Women want to hear from women of all ages. The older and younger generation have a lot to learn from each other.

• You will feel the angst and anger of people by simply living in the culture.
• In the episode with Reagan, they talked about how to love with healthy boundaries from Scripture while sharing the gospel and reflecting God.
• The country has never been so divided. It’s the role of God’s people to have a different voice and bring people together amidst this.
• It’s our job in the Church to love and to be sure of God’s love.

• 1 John 4 was written to a group of churches believing a Gnostic gospel. 
• The false gospel says that the body and mind are separate and evil, and any emotions that have to do with love and joy must be suppressed.
• The evidence of a Christian that has been changed by Christ is to love and love well.
• In the passage, John is encouraging Christians on how to love fellow believers and how to be confident in God's love. He also advocates for Christ's divinity and humanity.
• 1 John 4 says that the love of God was made manifest in us. It’s rich in doctrine and theology and is practical at the same time.

• John used love as a test of faith and eternal life.

Beverly [10:03]: “One of the fruit[s] of the Spirit, if we have the Spirit of God living in us through faith, is love. So if love is not there, the Spirit may not be there, and we may not be God's child.”

• John is writing to believers; fellow Christians were to love one another.
• The emphasis is for our love to be a witness of the world. If that disintegrates in the Church, there’s no hope for the world.
• The people of the Church are the ones who have to bring God’s love to others.

• Feelings trump faith and truth. That’s our culture.
• Feelings come and go; they’re unreliable. We can experience an up and down in feeling God’s love, similar to our relationships.
• In this situation, we must first recognize why we doubt God's love. 
• Guilt is a big reason why we feel the need to turn away from God. Other causes are disobedience, other people not loving us, and not knowing the Scriptures.
• What you have to do when you’re doubting is to return to the truth that God loves you and believe it.

• God is the originator of love. We don’t come to God and start loving Him; He starts by loving us.
• The idea that God has initiated His love for you is a foundational truth you can return to when you don’t feel loved.
• God’s love is different from human love. His love is agape love or meeting the needs and caring for the receiver of His love.
• God’s love is sacrificial on behalf of the beloved. The cross is God’s demonstration of His love.
• Similarly, loving one another is setting aside our own selfish needs on behalf of others.

• His love enables our love. You can see the impact of God’s love with how you love those who are hard to love, even from afar.
• Love is not a feeling; it’s a choice and a commitment. It also manifests in discipline and telling truths and consequences, not just affection.

Delaney [24:13]: “You can't experience God's love and not love other people.”

• Just smile at people. It’s a small thing, but it’s an act of love.
• God's love gives us the confidence to love ourselves and other people and speak the truth.
• Tune in to the full episode to hear more examples of how love makes a difference in our everyday life!

• Being confident in God’s love means that you don’t have to do things to earn it.
• We can express our love back to Him by obeying Him, living in truth, and living as he loves us.
• There's nothing we could ever do that would cause God to stop loving us. 
• The way he shows us love is never skewed and is always perfect.
• We try to find the love God gives in all the wrong places. But the only way we will meet that need for love is in Him.

• One thing is that love is love and whatever you want it to be. The root of it is nobody in culture knows how to define love.
• Desensitization to intimacy has impacted our view of love.
• We’ve taken a picture of how God is supposed to love and devalued it.
• Thinking that love is a way to rationalize sin and put it on a pedestal. But if you don’t have a relationship with the Lord, you are not equipped to love.
• The world’s love is all self-love and is the opposite of God’s love. God affirms that we are to love ourselves, but it can’t be void of Him.

• Suppressing all feelings, such as the premise of the church John was writing to, is also unhealthy.
• The idea that people could do whatever they want with their bodies because it's not associated with the spirit life is a justification for sin.

• John 7:19 speaks about loving each other as Christians.
• It’s easy to want to fight back when you get hurt by other Christians. It’s not always the right thing to do.
• Speaking an honest word can be loving, but it’s hard. You don’t do anybody a favor by saying nothing when you see something.
• The huge reason culture is angry is because they don’t have confidence in God’s love.
• Having a good theology of God’s love on top of living it out can help us live confidently in His love.

• Speaking truth to ourselves in love is how we combat guilt and shame.
• Believe His word and forgiveness as true. Only then can you move on.
• We like to punish ourselves. If we don’t allow Christ to do it, we will do it on ourselves.
• Perfect love drives out fear.

• Confidence is the opposite of fear. Being confident in God’s love is one of the ways you combat fear. 
• It’s God’s love that’s perfect, not our love. But because of that, we don’t have to fear.
• Having fear is fearing losing God’s love. But we don’t have to because we’re secure with His love.
• Jesus is our Savior. God is our Father.

Bev [53:31]: “He is your father. It's not just a picture. It's truth, and that's why we all have the same Father, that's why we're sisters in Christ. So that's why you get the new family. You have that security that this Father's love is perfect love, and then it will drive out the fear of not being loved.”

• We have to rely on the love God has for us.

• We can’t love people for doing what we need. The only transforming love is Christ.
• However, people can reflect God's love for you, and you can experience His love through them.
• Propitiation is a doctrine. It means that justice is needed and has been met.
• Christ has taken all of God’s disapproval and anger towards our sins as born sinners. Our sins have been propitiated through Christ, and God’s wrath is over.
• When you begin to understand that God’s not angry with you, then you can start to accept his love.

• Ours is not the beginning or definition of love. 
• The love of Christ is something outside of us; it’s something not defined by us and is always. It’s how Delaney treasures God’s love.
• God’s love helps Bev get out of bed in the morning and go to sleep at night.
• Life is hard sometimes. God’s love gives her peace and a secure place to rest.
• What God’s love meant for Bev personally is mending her relationship with her parents and letting God love through her.

• Love covers all wrongs. Christ’s love covered the world’s multitude of sins in history.
• Christ's love gives us more grace and the ability to be more compassionate toward people who are hard to love.
• Loving someone can help bring people out of their sins. Proverbs 10:12 tells us to be that example and not to be overly critical.
• The simple act of sharing the gospel is love covering a multitude of sins.

Delaney Dobbs and Beverly Coniaris are the co-hosts of the She is Becoming Podcast. They are a multi-generational duo who enjoy lively discussions with each other and the guests they interview. In each episode of She is Becoming, they study the Bible and flesh out relevant topics.

Get to know more about Delaney and Bev by tuning in to the She is Becoming Podcast.

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meta: Delaney Dobbs and Beverly Coniaris of She is Becoming joins us to speak about God’s love. They talk about our role as Christians in speaking His truth and embodying and bringing His love to others. Tune in now to learn more about what the Scriptures say regarding love. Listen to this episode just for you!