2. First John
General Epistles: James, 1 and 2 Peter, 1, 2, and 3 John, and Jude. These general letters, bearing the names of their presumed authors, were written for a broad Christian readership and not, as most New Testament letters, to an individual or local assembly (2 and 3 John are exceptions). Also known as Catholic Epistles (“catholic” means general or universal).
-Zondervan Dictionary of Bible and Theology Words

3. First John Apostle Apostolic men (associate of Apostle) Gospel
General Epistle
Anonymous

4. First John
Author: John
Date: 90’s
Recipients: Churches in Asia Minor
Occasion: Wrong beliefs about Jesus and wrong practices for Christians

5. God Is Love

6. God Is Love
We celebrate God’s love for us

7. 1 John 4:9-10, (NET Bible)
9 By this the love of God is revealed in us: that God has sent his one and only Son into the world so that we may 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 atoning sacrifice for our sins.
13 By this we know that we reside in God and he in us: in that he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God resides in him and he in God.

8. 1 John 4:9-10, (NET Bible)
16 And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has in us. God is love, and the one who resides in love resides in God, and God resides in him. 17 By this love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because just as Jesus is, so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears punishment has not been perfected in love.

9. God Is Love
“Don’t boast about your love for God; boast about His great love for you.”

10. God Is Love
“Love is not dormant;
it is demonstrated.”

11. 1 John 4: (NET Bible)
9 By this the love of God is revealed in us: that God has sent his one and only Son into the world so that we may 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 atoning sacrifice for our sins.

12. Romans 5: (NET Bible)
8 But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

13. God Is Love “Popular love” Conditional Uncostly Gratifies self
Feelings

14. God Is Love “Popular love” Conditional Uncostly Gratifies self
Feelings
“Agape love”
Unconditional
Sacrificial
Unselfish
Actions

15. God Is Love And can it be that I should gain
An int’rest in the Savior’s blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain,
For me, who Him to death pursued.
Amazing love! how can it be
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

16. God Is Love He left His Father’s throne above,
So free, so infinite His grace;
Emptied Himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam’s helpless race:
’Tis mercy all, immense and free;
For, O my God, it found out me.

17. God Is Love No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine!
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness Divine,
Bold I approach the eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.

18. God Is Love
We celebrate God’s love for us

19. God Is Love We celebrate God’s love for us
We reflect God’s love when we love one another

20. 1 John 4:7-8, 11-12, (NET Bible)
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been fathered by God and knows God. 8 The person who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
11 Dear friends, if God so loved us, then we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God resides in us, and his love is perfected in us.

21. 1 John 4:7-8, 11-12, (NET Bible)
19 We love because he loved us first. 20 If anyone says “I love God” and yet hates his fellow Christian, he is a liar, because the one who does not love his fellow Christian whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And the commandment we have from him is this: that the one who loves God should love his fellow Christian too.

22. God Is Love
“To love God and to love one’s fellow Christian are mutually inclusive.”

23. God Is Love
“The absence of love in the life of an individual proves that he does not know God. The one who does not love is a stranger to God. He never even began to have a relationship with God; that is, there was never a time when this person could have legitimately claimed that he knew God.”
–NAC

24. God Is Love
“You are not allowed to accept God’s incredible love for you and then keep it all to yourself. It is forbidden.”

25. God Is Love “Popular love” Conditional Uncostly Gratifies self
Feelings
“Agape love”
Unconditional
Sacrificial
Unselfish
Actions

26. God Is Love
“Love is not dormant;
it is demonstrated.”

27. God Is Love We celebrate God’s love for us
We reflect God’s love when we love one another