scripture
Obedience to God proves our love for him
1 John 2:5 But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him
1 John 3:10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.
1 John 5:2-3 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome,
Love for the world
1 John 2:15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
God’s great love for us is what brought us into his family
1 John 3:1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
We should love each other
1 John 3:11 This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.
1 John 3:14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death.
1 John 3:23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.
1 John 4:7-8 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
1 John 4:11-12 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
1 John 4:20-21 If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Love is a verb
1 John 3:16-18 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
God showed us perfect love
1 John 4:9-10 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
A lifestyle of love will give you confidence on judgment day
1 John 4:16-17 We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the Day of Judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.
Love and fear do not mix
1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
The only reason that we can love
1 John 4:19 We love because he first loved us.
observation and application
Everybody has a desire to be loved, someone that thinks that you are special. God loves you and he thinks enough of you that he wants you to be a part of his family and he paid a big price for you to become eligible to be one of his children.
There is only one way to prove that I love my heavenly father and that is to do what he asks me to do. If I think that he is asking too much then I need to remember what a privilege it is to be in his family, I need to remember that his only son did more for me than I could ever do for him. I must love him more than this world and anything that this world has to offer to me pales in comparison to what God has to offer for eternity.
God demonstrated his love to us through the greatest means possible as an example of how to love, he didn’t just say that he loves us but he actually proved it to us through his actions. Not many of us will have to die for someone to prove our love but we must love each other through good deeds we can’t just talk about it and never show any proof that we have love.
A lifestyle of love is what we are called to as Christ followers he gave us the perfect example and he calls us to follow after him and show love to everyone that we have contact with.
prayer
Thank you Lord for adopting me into your family, I am glad that you loved me and made it possible to have a relationship with you. Help me to use your example to learn how to be more loving.
