The greatest act of love and devotion to God is to love others with the love of Christ--we love because Christ first loved us!

The heart of John's letter pushes us past "not hating" to "loving others"--they are not the same thing!

As John moves into the core of his teaching on loving others well, he commands the Church to destroy hate and practice self-denial instead.

The full Gospel of salvation is about both a credited and LIVED righteousness.

Another foundation stone that John lays concerning loving others is our love of God's truth--we can't love others well until we love the truth more!

Only when we choose to come into God's light can our darkness be dealt with and our spirits set free to love.

The fulfillment of the "Gospel of Freedom" is that once we've been set free, we use our freedom to love others as Christ has loved us.

Love is the overflow of our freedom in Christ; lust is the overflow of our slavery to the flesh.

How do we live as a slave to righteousness rather than a slave to sin? Only one way--by walking in the power of the Holy Spirit!

The good news of the kingdom of God is not just a message, it's a ministry of freedom in Jesus' name!