1. 1 “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. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 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. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.” 1John 4:7–17

2. 2 So how does “knowing and believing” the love that God has for you specifically impact your quality of life? “The fact is that faith may lead to knowledge and knowledge may lead to faith. Here knowledge of God’s love necessarily precedes the ability to “rely” on that love. The sequence of thought is this: First, we must know and rely on the fact that God loves us. Second, we come to realize through relying on his love that in his very nature God is love. Third, we discover that to live in God means to live in love. The fellowship we have with the Father and with the Son (1:3), the fellowship in which he lives in us and we live in him, is perceived as nothing other than a fellowship of love. ” EBC There is an enormous wealth of life-changing truth in these comments.

3. 3 So how does “knowing and believing” the love that God has for you specifically impact your quality of life? “The fact is that faith may lead to knowledge and knowledge may lead to faith. Here knowledge of God’s love necessarily precedes the ability to “rely” on that love. The sequence of thought is this: First, we must know and rely on the fact that God loves us. Second, we come to realize through relying on his love that in his very nature God is love. Third, we discover that to live in God means to live in love. The fellowship we have with the Father and with the Son (1:3), the fellowship in which he lives in us and we live in him, is perceived as nothing other than a fellowship of love. ” EBC That means that faith does push us toward knowledge and knowledge does increase our faith as we will see shortly, but for now, knowledge does begin our process.

4. 4 So how does “knowing and believing” the love that God has for you specifically impact your quality of life? “The fact is that faith may lead to knowledge and knowledge may lead to faith. Here knowledge of God’s love necessarily precedes the ability to “rely” on that love. The sequence of thought is this: First, we must know and rely on the fact that God loves us. Second, we come to realize through relying on his love that in his very nature God is love. Third, we discover that to live in God means to live in love. The fellowship we have with the Father and with the Son (1:3), the fellowship in which he lives in us and we live in him, is perceived as nothing other than a fellowship of love. ” EBC What difference would we find in “knowing and relying on the fact that God loves us”? Knowing, believing and relying on the fact that God loves us will absolutely obliterate the power of temptation in all forms because “unbelief” in His love is what makes sin attractive. It is hope in God’s love for us that gives hope.

5. 5 So how does “knowing and believing” the love that God has for you specifically impact your quality of life? “The fact is that faith may lead to knowledge and knowledge may lead to faith. Here knowledge of God’s love necessarily precedes the ability to “rely” on that love. The sequence of thought is this: First, we must know and rely on the fact that God loves us. Second, we come to realize through relying on his love that in his very nature God is love. Third, we discover that to live in God means to live in love. The fellowship we have with the Father and with the Son (1:3), the fellowship in which he lives in us and we live in him, is perceived as nothing other than a fellowship of love. ” EBC What is the benefit of relying on God’s love and learning that God IS love as His nature? As we rely on His love, we learn that His love satisfies completely, removes all frustration and unrest. As we learn that God’s love for us satisfies us, we also learn that God’s nature cannot possibly change and that all we will ever get from God is that love that satisfies. If it was not God’s nature to love, man’s rebellion would have forced God to annihilate us long ago. There is an overpowering stability and rest that comes from knowing that He loves because it is His nature and that He could never do anything but love.

6. 6 So how does “knowing and believing” the love that God has for you specifically impact your quality of life? “The fact is that faith may lead to knowledge and knowledge may lead to faith. Here knowledge of God’s love necessarily precedes the ability to “rely” on that love. The sequence of thought is this: First, we must know and rely on the fact that God loves us. Second, we come to realize through relying on his love that in his very nature God is love. Third, we discover that to live in God means to live in love. The fellowship we have with the Father and with the Son (1:3), the fellowship in which he lives in us and we live in him, is perceived as nothing other than a fellowship of love. ” EBC Thirdly, to have that kind of infinite supply of everything imaginable will absolutely destroy any remnant of selfishness, which will by default, inevitably set us free to love in the same manner that God loves.

7. 7 So how does “knowing and believing” the love that God has for you specifically impact your quality of life? “The fact is that faith may lead to knowledge and knowledge may lead to faith. Here knowledge of God’s love necessarily precedes the ability to “rely” on that love. The sequence of thought is this: First, we must know and rely on the fact that God loves us. Second, we come to realize through relying on his love that in his very nature God is love. Third, we discover that to live in God means to live in love. The fellowship we have with the Father and with the Son (1:3), the fellowship in which he lives in us and we live in him, is perceived as nothing other than a fellowship of love. ” EBC How would life be impacted by choices that genuinely believed that God actually loves the person? If we actually believed that God loves us, we would be constantly covered by a heart of peace, that stands in the confidence that God’s love could never fail, be indifferent or uninvolved. It would be able to smile at any adversary with a sense of overwhelming peace.

8. 8 Before we move on I want us all to see the three essential steps to living the Christian life; all of which may easily be overlooked or bypassed which halts spiritual growth. Step one: ACCEPTANCE of the fact that God does indeed genuinely and deeply love you. Step two: BELIEVING by living experience in God’s love and learning that love is the very nature of God. Step three: EXPERIENCING in God IS LOVING God and others, or, if you walk with God, you will walk in love. It is one thing to say you believe that God is love, but quite another to experience it as His nature that can’t change.

9. 9 Now that we have explained it all carefully, let’s look at the quote again to see how it all comes together. “The fact is that faith may lead to knowledge and knowledge may lead to faith. Here knowledge of God’s love necessarily precedes the ability to “rely” on that love. The sequence of thought is this: First, we must know and rely on the fact that God loves us. Second, we come to realize through relying on his love that in his very nature God is love. Third, we discover that to live in God means to live in love. The fellowship we have with the Father and with the Son (1:3), the fellowship in which he lives in us and we live in him, is perceived as nothing other than a fellowship of love. ” EBC

10. 10 I hope that now it is more than clear to you that the first benefit of becoming a disciple of Jesus is that you will be plunged into an intimate and mutually satisfying love that will literally transform every aspect of your life with unity, peace and joy. Since we cannot survive without love, this is an enormous benefit to every aspect of your life. So the first cost to you that you must count in becoming a disciple of Jesus is, you will have to give up your confidence in yourself, your love of yourself, your “wisdom and capacity” and simply allow God to love you in the place of you loving yourself. So with one hand you take in all of the wonderful benefits of love that we just described, and in exchange, with the other hand, you have to give Jesus all your miserable, self- serving dedication to the pleasure of the addictions of your flesh that make you miserable and destroy your relationships anyway. It is literally giving up your disease in order to receive your healing. What you DO have to give up, a cost that you must count that does not feel like disease to us, is “CONTROL” of your life. So you might as well also give up the LIE that so easily enslaves you, that “you can do helpful things with the illusions of CONTROL” in your life.