1 John 4:7-21 New International Version

⁷ Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ 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. ¹⁰ This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹ Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

¹³ This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: 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 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. ¹⁶ And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. ¹⁷ This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 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.

¹⁹ We love because he first loved us. ²⁰ Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. ²¹ And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

1  – First Impression?

Love is the obviously overriding topic, but one person noted the presence of the gospel. I was too focused on the gospel and struggled to differentiate the passage from it.

2 – Love. (7-12) This is a huge passage. How do you feel about love and what actions do you take because of it?

I was trying to get everyone to get in touch with their feelings and look at what their feelings caused them to do. Naturally, they pushed this one back on me and I spent what seemed like forever stacking up the tenants of what the gospel means to me and why I want to help others learn.

3  –  What is love without Christ?

Hate was not the answer I was looking for, but it has a certain two-sided coin appropriateness to it. Others responded with flawed and with conditions. Mainly, I think the conditions are the selfish desires that causes those without Christ to respond to others with something that looks like love.

4  –  His Spirit. (13-16) What is life with the Spirit and no love?

Impossible. We concluded that with the Spirit you cannot not love.

5  – We are like Jesus. (17) How did Jesus love?

My intent with the question is to look at the actual aspects of Jesus’s life that represented how He loved. And my group responded with things like feed the hungry, heal the sick, perform miracles, but they also pointed out how he talked to people, to any person, washed feet, spoke about the love of God, and just took time to relate to people.

6  – Fear. How does fear hinder your life?

Quite simply it prevents us from taking actions to help others. We did not do too much confession on this one, but the idea is for you to think about how you have fallen short of showing love to others and improve going forward.

7  – Hate. How does hate differ from love?

I mentioned this earlier and it was not long before we wrapped up for the day, but the idea was to show that anything short of love can been seen as hate. Do I hate my neighbor? How are my actions different than those of someone who does hate him? There may not be a fine line between hate and love, but it might be complete opposites and no middle ground to be complacent on.