“True Love” (Part 2) (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 24, 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:

Several years ago, in a land far far away, I went to a fast-food restaurant to get a burger (I give a lot of illustrations about burgers, but that’s not all that I eat). As I went to order one of my favorite burgers, the clerk behind the counter informed me that they could not sell me any burgers because they were out of hamburger buns. [on screen] We had this moment where we just stared at each other. I was trying to exercise psychic powers over this person to will them to admit how ridiculous it was that they were out of buns and to try to get them to apologize. You’ll be glad to know that I was kind because kindness is always better than rudeness, plus these employees don’t get paid enough to put up with rude customers. However, I was flabbergasted about the knowledge that a place that had “Burger” in their name was out of hamburger buns. [on screen]

Well, we’re continuing our series in the book of 1 John and John has been talking about love over and over. John has stated in several different ways that Christians must be people of love. John would probably agree with this statement: a Christian without love is like a hamburger restaurant without hamburger buns: it’s senseless. 

So, as we journey through this sermon today, listen to what John continues to tell us about the necessity of love. Before we go any further, join me in prayer as we study God’s Word. 

(prayer)

We’re continuing our series in 1 John. This morning, we’re finishing up a sermon that I started last week. This is “True Love – Part 2.” [on screen]

Let’s read 1 John 4:7-19 and review what we learned last week.