OM DENNE EPISODE
Speaker: Rev. Tim Chang
Sermon Series: The Love of God
1 John 4:11-21 (ESV)
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.19 We love because he first loved us.20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Sermon Outline
1. The love of God transforms our relationship to God
V. 15-16 – Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
2. The love of God transforms our relationship to ourselves
V. 17-18 – By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
3. The love of God transforms our relationship to others
V. 20-21 – If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Prayer of Confession
Forgive us, O Lord, for everything that spoils our witness for you; that we so often deny with our lives what we say with our lips; for the difference between our creed and our conduct, our profession and our practice; for any example that makes it easier for people to criticize your church or for another to sin. Grant unto us a true penitence for our sins. Grant that at the foot of the cross we may find our burdens rolled away. And so strengthen us by your Spirit that in the days to come we may live more nearly as we ought. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen.
Questions for Reflection
What connected with you from the sermon or the passage?
How have you experienced God abiding in you? In what ways do you abide in God? In what ways do you struggle with equating “doing for” God with “being with” God?
John encourages us to know that perfect love casts out fear. How have you experienced the reality of this truth in your life? In what ways do you still long for this in certain areas of your life?
In what ways do you struggle loving people who are unlovable to you? How have you received God’s love to you when you know you’ve been unlovable?
What do you sense God calling you to do from this passage?
