The
Timelessness of Love
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June 10, 2007)
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June
10, 2007 1 Corinthians 12.31-13.8a. This study guide is based on 1 John
4:7-12
1.
Which do you
think is a more powerful motivator-love, fear, or hate? Why?
2.
What popular figure alive today or from history used hate to motivate
people?
3.
When have you been motivated by love?
Explore
It
4.
What were the readers of 1 John encouraged to do? (4:7)
5. What is the relationship between loving and knowing God? (4:7-8)
6.
How did God show His love? (4:9)
7. Why did God send His Son? (4:9)
8.
What is love? (4:10)
9.
Why should Christians love one another? (4:11)
11.
What is the
result of loving one another? (4:12)
Get
It
12.
How can we
demonstrate our love for God?
13.
What example
has Jesus set for us to follow?
14.
How should
God's love motivate you to love others?
15.
How do you
know that God lives in you?
16.
What does it
mean to live in God?
17.
Why is it be
easier to love God than other Christians?
18.
When you have
difficulty loving other believers, what is it that makes it difficult?
19.
How can we
demonstrate our love for others?
Apply
It
20.
Who is someone that you have a difficult time getting along with that you
need to ask God to help you love this week?
21.
What fear will you ask God to help you overcome?
22.
What specific steps will you take this week to demonstrate your love for
another believer?
1
John 4:7ff: Everyone believes that love is important, but love is usually
thought of as a feeling. In reality, love is a choice and an action, as 1 Cor.
13:4-7 shows. God is the source of our love: he loved us enough to sacrifice his
Son for us. Jesus is our example of what it means to love; everything he did in
life and death was supremely loving. The Holy Spirit gives us the power to love;
he lives in our hearts and makes us more and more like Christ. God's love always
involves a choice and an action, and our love should be like his. How well do
you display your love for God in the choices you make and the actions you take?
1
John 4:8: John says, "God is love," not "Love is God." Our
world, with its shallow and selfish view of love, has turned these words around
and contaminated our understanding of love. The world thinks that love is what
makes a person feel good and that it is all right to sacrifice moral principles
and others' rights in order to obtain such "love." But that isn't real
love; it is the exact opposite-selfishness. And God is not that kind of
"love." Real love is like God, who is holy, just, and perfect. If we
truly know God, we will love as he does.
1
John 4:9-10: Jesus is God's only Son. While all believers are sons and daughters
of God, only Jesus lives in this special unique relationship (see John 1:18;
John 3:16).
4:9-10
Love explains (1) why God creates-because he loves, he creates people to love;
(2) why God cares-because he loves them, he cares for sinful people; (3) why we
are free to choose-God wants a loving response from us; (4) why Christ died-his
love for us caused him to seek a solution to the problem of sin; and (5) why we
receive eternal life-God's love expresses itself to us forever.
4:10
Nothing sinful or evil can exist in God's presence. He is absolute goodness. He
cannot overlook, condone, or excuse sin as though it never happened. He loves
us, but his love does not make him morally lax. If we trust in Christ, however,
we will not have to bear the penalty for our sins (1 Peter 2:24). We will be
acquitted (Romans 5:18) by his atoning sacrifice.
1
John 4:12: If no one has ever seen God, how can we ever know him? John in his
Gospel said, "God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made
him known" (John 1:18). Jesus is the complete expression of God in human
form and he has revealed God to us. When we love one another, the invisible God
reveals himself to others through us, and his love is made complete.
4:12 Some people enjoy being with others. They make friends with strangers easily and always are surrounded by many friends. Other people are shy or reserved. They have a few friends, but they are uncomfortable talking with people they don't know or mingling in crowds. Shy people don't need to become extroverts in order to love others. John isn't telling us how many people to love, but how much to love the people we already know. Our job is to love faithfully the people God has given us to love, whether there are two or two hundred of them.
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