Welcome to week 3 of our 1, 2 & 3 John Scripture Plan. This week we cover 1 John 3:19-5:5. You can find links to the rest of the study at the bottom of this post. This week’s readings are all about love. Where does love come from? It comes from God. What is love? It is not a feeling. God is love. We love because he first loved us. Let’s study the Scriptures together and find out more about what John has to say about love – this passage is packed with it!

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Love is not a feeling

In the previous passage (which we studied last week) John reminds his readers what Christ has done for us and encourages us to love in truth and deed.

However, even though Christ is ‘perfecting us’ we are still a work in progress, we still make mistakes and feel guilty that we have hurt others and let God down.

If our hearts condemn us…

John tells us that at these times we must remember that it is our heart that condemns us – our feelings, not God – and that ‘God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything’.

 It is so easy to condemn ourselves isn’t it? So easy to focus on our feelings instead of the Word of God.

But, we must look at the positive changes God has made in our lives instead of focusing on the negative aspects that have not been changed yet. Then we will have hope that we are moving closer to God, rather than feeling guilty about how distant we are from Him. These feelings of guilt do not come from God. Our feelings do not tell us the truth about who we are in Christ.

John returns to talking about feelings in 1 John 4:18.

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

Fear has no place in love. If we are feeling afraid then we are listening to our heart and not to God. With God we have confidence. (1 John 3:21, 5:17; Eph 3:12)

Use the form below to download the 30 Days in the Epistles of John Scripture Plan to get each day’s reading for this study.

Love is Believing

We must base our beliefs on more than feelings. We must test our beliefs to see if they are in line with God’s Word. John tells us to test the spirits to see if they are from God or from the world. (1 John 4:1)

And we are not to be defeated or controlled by our feelings, or these worldly spirits. John tells us that we have overcome the spirits of the world if we have faith, believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, because God is greater than the one who is in the world (1 John 4:4-5).

Love is from God

From 1 John 4:7 to 1 John 5:3 the word love is used 31 times (in the NIV). John often repeats the same phrases and messages to emphasis their importance:

• God is love (4:8; 4:16)
  • God showed his love among us by sending his one and only Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins so that we could live through him (4:9-10)
  • This is love: not that we loved God but that he loved us, We love because he first loved us. (4:10, 19)
• Love one another,
  • because love comes from God (4:7)
  • since God so loved us (4:11)
  • then God lives in us (4:12)
  • We love because he first loved us (4:19)
  • God has given us a command to love our brother and sister (4:21)
  • Whoever claims to love God but hates his brother or sister is a liar (4:20)
  • Everyone who loves the father loves his child as well (5:1)
• Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God (4:8)
• Whoever does not love does not know God (4:8)
• God’s love is made complete in us (4:12; 4:17)
• There is no fear in love, perfect love drives out fear, the one who fears is not made perfect in love. (4:18)
• Love for God is keeping his commands. (5:3)

I find it difficult to summaries all this into a short paragraph because I think John chose to spend so much time repeating these statements so that we would get it. God is love. What he has done for us is more loving than anything we could ever imagine. Therefore, we should love God and love others, because to do anything less would be contrary to God.

And this brings us to this week’s memory verse. We love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19) This is a really simple verse to memorise and use when you are finding it difficult to love. You can find a printable version of this at the back of the 1, 2 & 3 John Guided Scripture Plan.

How we know God lives in us

Another concept that caught my attention because it is repeated often in this passage is that God lives in us and we live in him. John gives a number of reasons to know this, so I looked through the passage and wrote them down.

 The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. (3:24)

This is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us. (3:24)

If we love one another, God lives in us. (4:12)

This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. (4:13)

If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. (4:15)

Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. (4:16)

So, we can see that if we acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God, and keep his commands, God will live in us and us in Him. As we have already seen in 1 John, his command is to love God and love others, so if we live in love, and love others then God lives in us. We know this because of the Spirit he has given us.

This reminds me of the memory verse our children are learning at church this month:

For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. (2 Tim 1:7  NLT)

And I think this is the big challenge to me from these verses: God’s love is not yet being perfected in me because I still let fear control me. I will challenge myself to remember what God has done for me, how much love he has shown me, and then reach out with his love to others. 

We love because he first loved us.

How has God challenged you with these verses?