“True Love” (Part 1)

(1 John 4:7 – 5:4)

Series: A Word for the Church [on screen]

Rev. Matthew C. McCraw, EdD

First Baptist Church, Bartow, Florida

October 17, 2021

The Passage

1 John 4:7 – 5:4

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and his love is made complete in us. 13 This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent his Son as the world’s Savior. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God—God remains in him and he in God. 16 And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.

God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. 17 In this, love is made complete with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because as he is, so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears is not complete in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and yet hates his brother or sister, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother or sister whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And we have this command from him: The one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.

5:1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father also loves the one born of him. 2 This is how we know that we love God’s children: when we love God and obey his commands. 3 For this is what love for God is: to keep his commands. And his commands are not a burden, 4 because everyone who has been born of God conquers the world. This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith.

Introductory Comments:

Here we are; we are discussing love again. I told you that we would come back to this! There are few things greater to talk about than love!

John returns to this theme of love again and it is very similar to the same discussion he had in the second half of chapter 3. 

We have to ask ourselves, why does John decide to repeat the theme of love? Well, it must be pretty important, right?

If John took the time to repeat this, it’s because he really wants us to know and understand it. So, let’s pay attention!

Before we dive in, let’s pray together and ask God to speak to us. 

(prayer)

In this passage today we learn about true love. Not the kind of love that we read about in literature, see in the movies, experience in high school romances, or sing about in country music songs. We’re talking about real love!

So, from today’s passage, we will see four aspects of true love. By the way, we’re not going to finish the sermon today. As I was preparing this sermon, it became abundantly evident that I was going to need to divide this into two sermons, so that’s what I did. So, today’s sermon is True Love (Part 1). [on screen]

First, . . .

I. True love from God (4:7-11) [on screen]

These verses are the heart and foundation of everything else we will learn in today’s sermon. So, pay attention, okay? 

Let’s look at verses 7-11:

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God se