Jan 4, 2026 “Loved First”(1 John 4:7-16)

 

1 John 4:7-16 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.

Loved First

1 John 4:7-16

 

One of the phrases we hear much in church that we need to love. Love is central to the Christian life. When compared to faith and hope, love is greater.

 

1 Corinthians 13:13 ESV

[13] So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

 

However, loving other people is not an easy thing. It can be very hard to love someone who has wronged or hurt us. We need divine intervention to love. John tells us what the source of love is. It is not that we can force ourselves to love. Love does not come from our personality, skills or will; it comes from God.

 

1 John 4:7 ESV

[7] Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

 

Our love comes from God and if we love, we show we have been born of God and know God. In other words, our relationship with God allows us to love. Furthermore, John defines love as an action and not a feeling or a thought.

 

1 John 4:9-10 ESV

[9] In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. [10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  

 

Love moves towards its object of affection. God came to us and stayed with us. God did not sit in Heaven. He came as a person, Jesus Christ, and lived with us. God came not just to live with us, but to live in us.

 

1 John 4:13 ESV

[13]  By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

  

We have his spirit, but we have to have faith.

 

1 John 4:15 ESV

[15] Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.  

 

There is no work we need to do. There is no formula we have to complete. God did the work and we need to believe that He loves us.

 

When our hearts feel closed or we find it impossible to love, John reminds us to go back to the place we were loved first. When our faith is restored, love will come naturally.  

 

God is not telling us to try harder, but to go back to the cross. We don't become more loving, so that God will come into our hearts. God has already given us the gift to love, we just need to return to the truth that God loves us.

• Goodness Of God
• This I Believe (The Creed)
• God Will Make A Way