INTRODUCTION:

The word translated “love” in First John is the word, “agape”.

It appears in the New Testament a total of 259 times!

It appears in the New Testament as a noun 116 times!

It appears in the New Testament as a verb 143 times!

It appears (in its multiple forms) in First John 26 times!

It means a deep and passionate love!

In First John, John applies this word in seven specific areas:

FIRST, KEEPING GOD’S WORD IS BIBLICAL EVIDENCE OF A REAL AND LIVING RELATIONSHIP WITH THE REAL AND LIVING GOD! (5X)

1^st John 2:5 “but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him…”

1^st John 4:16 “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”

1^st John 4:17 “By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.”

1^st John 5:2 “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.”

1^st John 5:3 “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.”

SECOND, LOVING GOD AND HIS PEOPLE IS BIBLICAL EVIDENCE OF A REAL AND LIVING RELATIONSHIP WITH THE REAL AND LIVING GOD! (2X)

1^st John 4:8 “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

1^st John 4:18 “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.”

THIRD, TRUE BIBLICAL LOVE FOR GOD AND HIS PEOPLE MUST BE SEEN IN ONE’S LIFE AND NOT MERELY IN OUR WORDS! (1X)

1^st John 3:18 “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”

FOURTH, LOVING GOD’S PEOPLE IS BIBLICAL EVIDENCE OF A REAL AND LIVING RELATIONSHIP WITH THE REAL AND LIVING GOD! (13X)

1^st John 2:10 “Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling.”

1^st John 3:10 “By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

1^st John 3:11 “For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.”

1^st John 3:14 “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.”

1^st John 3:16 “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.”

1^st John 3:17 “But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?”

1^st John 3:23 “And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.”

1^st John 4:7 “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.”

1^st John 4:11 “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

1^st John 4:12 “No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.”

1^st John 4:20 “If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.”

1^st John 4:21 “And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.”

1^st John 5:1 “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.”

FIFTH, THERE ARE SOME THINGS THAT GOD’S PEOPLE ARE COMMANDED TO NOT LOVE! (1X)

1^st John 2:15 “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

SIXTH, LOVING GOD WILL NOT BRING US THE LOVE OF THIS WORLD! (1X)

1^st John 3:1 “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.”

SEVENTH, THE LOVE OF GOD FOR HIS PEOPLE IS SEEN IN THE LIFE AND DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST! (3X)

1^st John 4:9 “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.”

1^st John 4:10 “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

1^st John 4:19 “We love because he first loved us.”