READ | SERMON NOTES
Summary l John talks about Christian love for the 3rd time. In v8 and 16, John says God is love.
God’s love
- does not depend on our initiative or our worthiness
We do not have to reach out to God or believe in God to be loved. God loves us whether we deserve it or not.
- initiated the sending of Jesus that we might live (v9a)
God sent Jesus to pay for our sins.
Discipleship Lesson 1: Connect with God Regularly
- God Is Love (v8)
When John says that God is love, he means love is the essence of God’s being. John defines God’s character and what it means to live in relation to God.
- Our Ability To Love One Another Comes From God (v7)
The source of our love for one another is not ourselves, but God.
- Tap Into God’s Infinite Source of Love (v7)
Loving others is only possible through tapping into God’s infinite love. The Greek word for those born of God implies a close relationship. Problems in John’s church arose from people lacking intimate connection with God, focusing too much on doctrine and exposing themselves to heresy instead of growing closer to God. Regularly connecting with God is crucial. Prioritising other things over God affects how we interact with people. God equips us to help others, so being filled with His love is essential. This enables us to offer help to those in need.
- Our Connection With God Affects Our Ability To Help Or Love Others
Our loving relationship with God spills over into our relationships. If we are disconnected from God, we will have nothing to offer to those around us.
- Connect With God Through Prayer
Prayer fills our love tank. Having margins in our lives to regularly connect with God, an unlimited source of love, enables us to connect more deeply with others.
“Those who know God the best are the richest and most powerful in prayer.” EM Bounds
Discipleship Lesson 2: Love One Another Habitually
The injunction before “let us love one another” occurs three times in the passage. John wants us to understand what inspires our love for one another.
- Exhortation (v7)
John urges us to make loving others a normal practice, especially fellow Christians. Our ability to love flows from our regeneration in Christ. To know God’s love is to manifest His love. If someone lacks love, it shows they do not know God, because God is love (v8).
- Duty (v11)
This is the basis of our love for each other. The first part of v11 is our motivation to love one another, because God loves us. In response to God’s love, we should love one another without discrimination, as God’s love does not discriminate.
Vine’s Expository Dictionary defines the love of God as “The deep and constant love and interest of a perfect Being towards entirely unworthy objects, producing and fostering a reverential love in them towards the Giver, and a practical love towards those who are partakers of the same, and a desire to help others to seek the Giver.”
Two things to note
- The love of God is deep and constant
Unlike the shallow love that is common, the love of God is embedded in His character; it is deep-seated and constant.
- It is directed at entirely unworthy objects
None of us are worthy of God and His love because, by nature, we are enemies of God. Yet, God’s love prompted Him to send His Son to make us children of God.
Many of us love selectively, prioritising those in our immediate circles while overlooking others we should also love.
- Hypothesis (v12, 15)
That is the effect of our love on one another. Our love reflects God’s love for us, making the invisible God visible. Such discipleship in v15 demands our hearts and minds. God’s love is perfected as we experience and express it.
In the passage, John emphasises loving one another three times. Jesus, in John 15:12, tells us how to love in God’s kingdom. Not following God’s command to love can lead us back to our old ways.
Here are some ways to love others habitually
- Talk to people you do not know well
- Talk to our guests and bring them to the welcome corner
- Invite those sitting alone to sit together with you
- Invite people to a meal
- Talk to children
- Visit the sick at home or in the hospital
- Attend the wake of someone you do not know
- Ask God to show you a need that you can meet
To see if we are loving others habitually, we can ask, “What did I do for someone today that was inconvenient, or time-consuming?”
Every act of love in our lives is another word to the world about God’s love.
(Sermon notes by Joy Lim)
PONDER | REFLECTION QUESTIONS
A. God’s Love
- God’s love does not depend on our initiative or our worthiness.
a. What is your understanding God’s love?
b. Share how you have experienced God‘s love growing up, over the years and in recent times. - God’s love initiated the sending of Jesus that we might live .
a. “God is Love” – Spend some time exploring the depths of this.
b. How does God’s love empower us to love?
B. Manifesting God’s Love
- Connect With God Regularly
a. Our connection with God affects our ability to love others. How are you connecting with God?
b. What steps can you take to deepen your connection with God? - Love One Another Habitually
a. Have you ever done something for some one that was inconvenient or time-consuming? Share the experience, if any.
b. What inspires your love for one another? To what extent is it an exhortation, a duty or an hypothesis?
c. What steps can you take to love one another such that it becomes a habit. - Pray for one another.
