Humankind was created to be like God, to exhibit His likeness; this is not talking about our physical attributes, but those having to do with our nature, and especially in reference to relationships.

John 1:1-2
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.”

Notice here, the “Word” was in the beginning, the Greek [Logos] means, the source, origin, embodiment of all divine authority, power and wisdom.

Not only was the Word [masculine] in the beginning, the Word was God, and yet was with God [the Greek phrase translated, “was with God,” literally means “was face to face with God,” i.e., the Word [Christ, God the Son] was in an intimate, up close and personal relationship with God the Father, and God the Holy Spirit, long before anything was created.

The Word, being there in the beginning, means He is God, because only God is
preexistent and eternal, everything else is created,

(John 1:3-4)
“All things came into being through Him [the Word], and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life [biological and spiritual], and the life was the Light of men [i.e., God’s revelation of Himself was presented to us in Jesus].

John 1:14
“And the Word became flesh, and [lived] among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten [unique, one of a kind Son] from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

John 1:18
“No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.”

Jesus is Immanuel [God in the flesh], God’s revelation of Himself to the world. No wonder Jesus said,

(John 14:6-7)
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.”

God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit existed before anything was created. Think about that (but don’t dwell on it too long, as you will not be able to make logical sense out of it); the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were in constant relationship and intimate fellowship, before anything existed. This is not something our mind can grasp, but God’s Word helps to explain (Deuteronomy29:29).

Deuteronomy 29:29
“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law,” i.e., in order to trust God, we don’t have to fully understand how God has always existed, and everything else has been created, but we know He is Omnipotent, Omnipresent, Omniscient, Eternal and Loving.

Today, let’s center in on God’s Love, and how He expresses that love in and through the relationship He has with those who are made in His image, those who demonstrate God’s love in their relationships.

The human soul desires love more than anything else in the world. No wonder the prominent theme or subject of most books, poems, songs, and movies, is love. We, as God’s children, are made for relationships, and love is the purpose and priority of those relationships.

Let’s turn our attention now to 1John 4:7-21.

1John 4:7-21
"7 Beloved, let’s love one another; for 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 By this the love of God was revealed in us, that God has sent His only Son into the world so that we may live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to 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. 13 By this we know that we remain in Him and He in us, because He has given to us of His Spirit. 14 We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God. 16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. 17 By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, we also are in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. 19 We love, because He first loved us. 20 If someone says, “I love God,” and yet he hates his brother or sister, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother and sister whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God must also love his brother and sister."

Read 1John 4:7-8
"7 Beloved, let’s love one another; for 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."

To obey God is to love God: Love and obedience are synonymous, they are to be exemplified through the patterns and the priorities of a Christian’s life. Belonging to God, i.e., being born-again, born from above, born of the Spirit, born of God, will be reflected in the love expressed by those who are saved, those who have been spiritually and eternally born into God’s family.

John 1:12-13
“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of a man, but of God."

[not biological, ancestral, willful, or legal]

John 3:5-8
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which has been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which has been born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it is coming from and where it is going; so is everyone who has been born of the Spirit.”

God shows His love for us by placing His Spirit in us, and so, we are to express His love toward, and share His love with, others (cf. Matthew 22:36-40).

Matthew 22:36-40
"36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 Upon these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.”"

To say you love God but are unwilling to love others is a contradiction, a dichotomy, because God is Love. If you are born of God, you have His love in you and you will love others; if you don’t love others, it is evident that you are either not saved, or you are disobedient.

Read 1John 4:9-10
"9 By this the love of God was revealed in us, that God has sent His only Son into the world so that we may live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."

God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins, so that we might live for Him. This is God’s greatest expression of love and His greatest gift to mankind; everyone who trusts in Him receives eternal life, and has come into an intimate relationship with God for all of eternity.

Read 1John 4:11-12
"11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to 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."

We do not deserve God’s merciful expression of love, sending His own Son to die for our sins, that is why it is called GRACE! But, if you have genuinely been saved through Christ, you will seek to obediently serve God, offering up your own life as a living sacrifice to God, being transformed day by day, knowing and doing His will, by HIs grace, for His glory.

Romans 12:1-2
“Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Jesus allowed Himself to be put to death, then raised Himself from the grave by His own authority.

John 10:17-18
“For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”

After Christ completed all He had come to do, He went back into heaven to be at the right hand of the Father, to rejoin Him in intimate fellowship; and therefore, because of what Christ accomplished, those who believe in and follow Him also have fellowship with the Father, and the Holy Spirit.

John 14:16-20
“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, so that He may be with you forever; the Helper is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him; but you know Him because He remains with you and will be in you.”

John 14:23
“I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you. After a little while, the world no longer is going to see Me, but you are going to see Me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I in you.”

1John 1:1-3
“What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life— and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us— what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.”

As Christians we are God’s children and we will therefore demonstrate His love while we are here on this earth, so that others might come to be saved.

Read 1John 4:13-18
"13 By this we know that we remain in Him and He in us, because He has given to us of His Spirit. 14 We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God. 16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. 17 By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, we also are in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love."

God confirms in your heart that you belong to Him; He gives you the Holy Spirit at the moment of genuine salvation.

Romans 10:9-10
“if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”

Romans 10:13
’Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.’”

Romans 8:1
“Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

John 5:24
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

Ephesians 1:13
“In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise.”

1Corinthians 12:13-14
“For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many.”

As Christians, we have full confidence that we have been eternally forgiven and we sovereignly belong to God, therefore we have no fear of condemnation, judgment, or punishment.

Read 1John 4:19-21
"19 We love, because He first loved us. 20 If someone says, “I love God,” and yet he hates his brother or sister, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother and sister whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God must also love his brother and sister."

We are able to love because God first loved us. If you have received God’s love, you will love others in His name. Jesus is not only our Savior, He is our example of what real love is and how we are to express that love in our relationships.

1John 3:16-18
“We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.”

Godly love is not just a feeling, it is an intentional, selfless, unconditional sacrifice. When a Christian brother or sister is in need, we are to reach out and help them as God has provided for us to do so. You cannot love God apart from loving God’s children (your brothers and sisters in Christ).

1John 4:7-8
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”

1John 4:20-21
“If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.”

We all fall short when it comes to sharing God’s love with those around us; and so, as we prepare to take the Lord’s Supper, let each of us sincerely ask God to reveal in our heart where we have failed to express our love for God, our love for God’s Word, and our love for God’s people; and then let us each, in the quietness of our own heart, admit our sin, thanking God for His forgiveness, and asking God to strengthen us, so that we might live in such a way that others may see our good works, and glorify our Father who is in heaven.

Pastor Mike
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