SCRIPTURE

See what great love the Father has given us that
1 John 3:1

Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 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. Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another. No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and his love is made complete in us. This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent his Son as the world’s Savior. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God—God remains in him and he in God. And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.
1 John 4:7–16

1. God’s love is central

2. God’s love is individual & parental.

Holding a baby, watching her breathe, so cute!

The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.
Zephaniah 3:17, ESV

God’s love is individual & parental.

3. God’s love is unconditional & irrevocable.

That’s even our own definition/ideal of love.

He’s never going to take his love back. Never going to abandon you.

If he was going to, it wouldn’ve been at the cross.

Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? … No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:35, 37–39

There is no good you could do to make Him love you more.
There is no bad you could do to make Him love you less.

CONCLUSION

If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing.
1 Corinthians 13:1-2, NLT

Speak all the languages on earth (and angels)
Had the gift of prophecy, giant global ministry
Understood all mysteries
Had all knowledge (what you come to school for)

This is AGAPE Christian High School.

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.
The Love of God is Greater Far

Showing love to sibling who’s driving you nuts.
Showing love to parents that are way too strict.
Showing love to the person around here who doesn’t get enough attention, or the wrong kind of attention.

All of us know John 3:16, but 1 John 3:16 is way more challenging because we’re called to have the same kind of love for others that Jesus has for us.

Talking about love is very easy; it’s another matter to be walking in love. To love the world to me is no big deal; I have way more trouble loving the guy who lives across the street from me.

Notes & Ideas