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2 The Point God s love empowers me to love. The Bible Meets Life For many people, love means whatever they want it to mean. They can express a deep and profound love for someone or something, but later that love has disappeared. Too often, our examples of love disappoint or fail us. We see in God a whole different example of love. He is the very embodiment of love because He is love. The Bible shows us that we can know and experience that love through Jesus Christ. The Passage 1 John 4:7-12 The Setting The apostle John wrote this letter to encourage believers, to lead them to avoid sin and false teaching, and to help them know they have eternal life. The topic of love permeates this short book, leading us to focus on the love of God and our need to love each other. One of the evidences that we have a relationship with God is the presence and demonstration of His love in our lives. Bible Studies for Life 23

3 What does the Bible say? Key Words Propitiation (v. 10) This term refers to a sin offering designed to appease God s wrath against the sinner. Since God alone can forgive sin, His righteous indignation against sin must be satisfied. Remains (v. 12) God lives within believers. His presence is sensed as believers love one another. He remains, abides, and dwells in the hearts of those who love Him. Perfected (v. 12) The biblical meaning refers to something being completed, accomplished, or finished. As we walk with God, we reach His goal of loving others. 1 John 4:7-12 (HCSB) 7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 God s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His One and Only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and His love is perfected in us. 24 SeSSion 2

4 THE POINT God s love empowers me to love. GET INTO the STUDY 10 minutes DISCUSS: Invite your group members to turn their attention to the image on page 19 of the Personal Study Guide (PSG). Ask: What makes you love someone? Notes SUMMARIZE: There s power behind the throne. Great leaders in history rarely stand alone. Whether kings of empires or movers and shakers in the business world, there is often someone standing in the background giving advice and counsel. They exert a power and influence that s not openly seen. But it s felt. You may not be a king, but there s a power that motivates and influences your actions and behavior. For some of us, the power behind the throne comes from friends, a demanding employer, or a persistent spouse. What motivates you? SAY: Love may be the most potent influence in our lives. We discover in God a love that endures, a love that persists no matter what, and a love that always seeks our best. GUIDE: Invite group members to respond to The Point on page 20 of the PSG: God s love empowers me to love. ENHANCEMENT: Bring your group s attention to Pack Item #3, 1 John 4:7 poster, to highlight the focus of today s study. PRAY: Move the group toward Bible study by praying for your group members or those they love who may be struggling to accept God s love and extend it to others. Display Pack Item #3 to communicate the session topic. Bible Studies for Life 25

5 5 minutes STUDY the BIBLE 1 John 4:7-8 Notes 7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. READ: Ask someone to read 1 John 4:7-8 aloud. DISCUSS: Question 2 on page 22 of the PSG: How does the statement God is love differ from saying God loves? SAY: Whereas holiness is the fundamental characteristic of God s Person, love might be called His primary moral attribute. Love is what God is all about. TIP: This session is a great opportunity to talk with a group member about salvation. Use the inside front cover of this Leader Guide for assistance. TRANSITION: Love, agape, is to be the defining characteristic of genuine believers. Our love for others is not something that springs out of our own natural goodness, but comes directly from God. 26 SeSSion 2

6 THE POINT God s love empowers me to love. 1 John 4:7-8 Commentary Love is the dominant theme of these verses. John addressed his readers as Dear friends, a rendering of the Greek agapetoi, meaning loved ones. John referred to his readers six times using this term of endearment. In this specific context, John was speaking of the love that characterized the relationships between followers of Jesus. As John penned the letter we know as 1 John, he instructed his readers, let us love one another. The verb renders the Greek agapōmen, directly related to his greeting agapetoi. In the Greek text the words stand side-by-side, Agapetoi, agapōmen, literally Loved ones, let us love. The objects of this love are one another, specifically referring to brothers and sisters in Christ. John provided two specific reasons for commanding the faith community to love one another. First, he reminded them, love is from God. The word love is the Greek noun agape. From God identifies the source. Since God Himself is eternal and holy, the love He provides for His people is eternal and holy also. God s love is not the crude, self-serving, exploitative emotion to which many people get addicted. God s love is selfless, others-serving, and involves far more than the emotions. The second reason John commanded members of the faith community to love one another, was because everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The verb loves renders the Greek participle agapōn, a form stressing continuous action, in this case, love. Love characterizes those who have been born of God. John here referred to the spiritual birth that occurs whenever someone trusts Jesus as Savior by believing on His name (John 1:12-13). Of God is exactly the same in the Greek text as from God used of love. In other words, God is both the Source of love and the Source of spiritual or second birth. Since both love and spiritual birth have a common source, namely God, love defines spiritual birth and spiritual birth demonstrates love. John s assessment, that this type of loving person knows God, served as an assurance to faithful believers, a warning to false believers, and an invitation to non-believers. John examined the reverse side of the issue also. Anyone who does not love does not know God. The effect of placing side-by-side the positive statement of 4:7 with its negative counterpart in 4:8 served to emphasize John s point. Love, agape, is the defining characteristic of genuine believers. To know God means to experience Him in a close and cherished way. Know renders a Greek verb carrying the ideas of understanding, acknowledging, and interrelating with another person. In view of this context is a genuine relationship between God and people through which God provides all that people need. People offer themselves to God in humble and obedient service. Specifically, God s love, agape, is directed through believers to other people in the form of loving actions. Bible Studies for Life 27

7 10 minutes STUDY the BIBLE 1 John 4:9-10 Notes 9 God s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His One and Only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. READ: Ask a group member to read 1 John 4:9-10 aloud. SUMMARIZE: God sent Christ as the Messiah the Savior of the world. Jesus offered His life, crucified, as the only possible propitiation, or atoning sacrifice, for all our sins. The death of Jesus paid both for the condition of human sin and for all of our individual sins. In doing so, atonement was made, making all who receive this gift of salvation at one with God. DISCUSS: Question 3 on page 23 of the PSG: What do you find remarkable in verses 9-10? TRANSITION: Why did God sacrifice His only Son? Was it because our love for Him merited such an unspeakable gift? Hardly. Verse 10 makes it clear that God loved us first: Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us. 28 SeSSion 2

8 THE POINT God s love empowers me to love. 1 John 4:9-10 Commentary Having established his point that God is love, John then declared how God demonstrated His love to humankind. God s love was revealed among us in this way is emphatic in Greek. In this way employs the demonstrative pronoun and is positioned first in the sentence. Revealed is the passive form of the Greek verb meaning to be manifested or to be made known. The passive voice places the emphasis on what God has done, not on what people have done. The group represented by among us is the community of believers John addressed in his letter. Accordingly, John demonstrated his theological proposition that God is love with a tangible act of God. How did God reveal His love among us? He sent His One and Only Son into the world. The verb sent renders the Greek apostellō, meaning to send out, from which the word apostle derives. God sent out Jesus from heaven into the world, meaning into the realm of people, those separated from Him by their sins. John s identification of Jesus as God s One and Only Son is based on a Greek adjective meaning one of a kind. In a real sense Jesus is in a class by Himself. While we can become children of God, no one except Jesus is the Son of God. John emphasized Jesus uniqueness. John used this adjective with reference to Jesus four times in his Gospel (1:14, 18; 3:16, 18). In fact, John is the only New Testament writer to use the term in reference to Christ. For John, when God sent Jesus, His unique Son, into the world, He was doing something incomparable. John identified the explicit purpose God sent Jesus into the world. So that renders the Greek conjunction used to indicate either purpose or result. Both applications fit the context well in this verse. God sent Jesus for the purpose that we might live through Him. Jesus coming into the world of sinful people from God opened the possibility for all people to return to God through Him. However, purpose becomes result as we take God at His word, trust Jesus, and replicate His love in and through our lives. John s phrase, that we might live, included ideas such as having abundant life (John 10:10) and having eternal life (3:16). However, in this present context, John referred specifically to the modus operandi of the Christian life. Believers live through Him, through Christ Jesus. Apart from Christ, neither abundant nor eternal life is possible. God demonstrates His love through Jesus Christ and it is only through Him that we might live. John stipulated that Jesus was sent to be the propitiation for our sins. Other English translations use words like atoning sacrifice or expiation. The Greek term refers to a sin offering, hence the NIV s atoning sacrifice. For further study, see the article, Expiation, Propitiation, in the Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary. Bible Studies for Life 29

9 15 minutes STUDY the BIBLE 1 John 4:11-12 Notes 11 Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and His love is perfected in us. READ: Ask a group member to read 1 John 4:11-12 aloud. DISCUSS: Question 4 on page 24 of the PSG: When have you sensed God s love and power at work in your life? SUMMARIZE: This is one of the greatest truths of the Bible: God loves us. We do nothing to make God love us; He just does. God s desire is for us to live in His love and to share that same love with others. Although God Himself is invisible, He s clearly seen in our lives as we demonstrate His great love to others. DISCUSS: Question 5 on page 25 of the PSG: How will being loved by God shape the way you live? DO: Instruct group members to complete the activity on page 25 of the PSG on their own. Afterwards, invite volunteers to share their responses as time allows. Deep and Wide: ]] Which truth about God s love do you find most miraculous? (Circle one.) A. God gave His only Son for us (v. 9). B. God loved us first (v. 10). C. God s love is accomplished or completed when we love others (v. 12). ]] On a scale of 1-10, how well are you doing with God s command to love others? ]] God s gift of the Holy Spirit empowers us to love others. What difference does this gift make in your relationships? TRANSITION: When we love others because of God s love for us, the world experiences God s love by seeing it expressed through our daily actions. 30 SeSSion 2

10 THE POINT God s love empowers me to love. 1 John 4:11-12 Commentary Thus far we have seen that God is love (4:7-8) and that God demonstrates His love through Jesus Christ (vv. 9-10). John then led his readers to the next logical step. If God is love, and if He demonstrates love through Jesus Christ, then those who believe in Jesus can love others because of God s love for them and in them. Believers become more like God as they lovingly serve others. God s love empowers believers to love others. To reinforce his point, John once again addressed his readers as Dear friends. He refocused attention from what God had done in demonstrating His love by sending Jesus to what believers should be doing as a result. He began with a conditional statement: if God loved us. The word if does not question that God loved us, but rather means since God loved us. God s love precedes and produces human response. The only appropriate response is for believers to love one another. At this point, John used the infinitive form of the verb agapaō, prescribing love as a constant characteristic of Christian relationships. To underscore his point, John employed a verb meaning to owe, to be indebted, or to be obligated, and translated as must. Thus, John s statement, we also must love one another, carried a heavy sense of obligation. From John s perspective, the most legitimate human response to God s indisputable love was an unfeigned love for others. As he had done in his Gospel, John asserted, No one has ever seen God (John 1:18). Belief in the unseen God is a matter of faith. Yet, what gives such faith expression or tangibility? John answered the question for his readers by telling them, If we love one another, God remains in us. The verb remains renders the Greek word meaning to stay or to dwell. Thus, when one believer loves another believer, the unseen God is present in a tangible way. The unseen God is experienced in real ways as believers love one another. In this way, His love is perfected in us. What does perfected love mean? The Greek term means to reach the goal or to be fulfilled. God s goal in loving us is that we will love Him. By extension, we express our love for God by loving others. This reciprocating love was necessary for the preservation and health of the covenant community. In this regard, New Testament love (agape) parallels the Old Testament love (chesed), which put a heavy emphasis on covenant loyalty. John encouraged his readers to love God and to love others. He spoke of love as a noun (agape; 4:7, 8, 9, 10, 12), as a finite verb (agapaō; 4:7, 10, 11, 12), as an infinitive (agapan; 4:11) and as a participle (agapōn; 4:8). John wrote about and prescribed love in every way available to him. In doing this he accentuated that, as believers, we can love because of God s love for us and because of God s love in us. In this way, the world experiences God s love, seeing it expressed through our daily actions. Bible Studies for Life 31

11 5 minutes LIVE IT OUT SAY: How can you let God s love shape your day-to-day life? Notes GUIDE: Lead group members to consider the responses to the Bible study listed on page 26 of the PSG. ]] Accept God s love. Ask Him to help you comprehend and acknowledge His love for you. Having a hard time believing it s real? Talk with your group leader about this. Also, check out What Does Love Look Like? on page 2 of this issue. ]] Extend mercy to someone this week. Intentionally offer forgiveness and a clean slate even if these haven t been asked for or deserved. ]] Express God s love. As a group, come up with a way that reveals God s deep love to a group of people in your community. Allow God to use you to love them. Wrap It Up SAY: There s definitely power behind the throne. Let God s love be the motivator in your life the thing that influences your actions and behavior every day. When you do, you ll gain a deeper awareness of God s nature and find opportunities to communicate His deep love to others. 32 SeSSion 2

12 My group's prayer requests Leading a group just for women, men, singles, or CoLLegiates? Get customized discussion questions & ideas at BibleStudiesforLife.com/blog. Waiting Room: While You Wait, God Works I sit in the waiting room. The receptionist took my name, recorded my insurance data, and gestured to a chair. Please have a seat. We will call you when the doctor is ready. The waiting room. Not the examination room. That s down the hall. Not the consultation room. That s on the other side of the wall. We in the waiting room understand our assignment: to wait. To continue reading Waiting Room from HomeLife magazine, visit BibleStudiesforLife.com/articles. Bible Studies for Life 33