1 John – Week 2

1 John – Week 2

Love is a theme that runs throughout the book.  John talks about what we shouldn’t love, how we are loved, how we know what love is, and how we should act accordingly.

And as John jumps into this theme in the early part of the book…he makes it clear that this is NOT something new. 

⁷ Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment for you; rather it is an old one you have had from the very beginning. This old commandment—to love one another—is the same message you heard before.

1 John 2:7-8

As we jump down a few verses, John wants us to know that the blessings of carrying out this commandment can be hindered.  There are things that can distract it from happening.  There are things that can keep it from being part of our lives.  And it has to do with love too.

Jumping to verse 15 John says

¹⁵ Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you.  ¹⁶ For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. ¹⁷ And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave.

1 John 2:15-17

Where should this love, this real love come from?  Where does it originate?  How do we grow this in our lives?

As we jump into 1 John 3, John helps us to see that.

See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him.

1 John 3:1

Love originates with the Father.  Mike talked about this last week.  It starts as we receive His love.  As we recognize our worth and purpose come from the Father’s love.

If you are part of the family…this is what we do.  We love one another.  As we look more and more like the Father, we love.  It’s a trait of the family.

What does it look like?  Real love?  Jump down to verse 16….

¹⁶ We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.

1 John 3:16

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