Let Us Love One Another

1 John 4:7-12 is extremely helpful for those of us who struggle to love others like we should. John basically gives us the theological foundation for loving one another.

Here are the 3 points I meditated on in our Wed evening Bible Study:

1. We are to love one another because we know the One who is love (v. 7-8).
-God is love and He imparts Himself to us when we are born of Him.
-To not love is to fail to manifest the nature of the One who we claim to be our Father.

2. We are to love one another because God has loved us in Christ (v. 9-11).
-The Cross reveals God's love.
-The Cross propitiates God's wrath.
-The Cross fuels our love for one another.

3. We are to love one another because God is seen in our love for one another (v. 12).
-God’s love is revealed when we love one another.

Sinclair Ferguson on the Cross as the demonstration of God's love:
“When we think of Christ dying on the cross we are shown the lengths to which God’s love goes in order to win us back to himself. We would almost think that God loved us more than he loves his Son! We cannot measure such love by any other standard. He is saying to us: I love you this much. The cross is the heart of the gospel. It makes the gospel good news: Christ died for us. He has stood in our place before God’s judgment seat. He has borne our sins. God has done something on the cross we could never do for ourselves. But God does something to us as well as for us through the cross. He persuades us that he loves us.”