Big Idea: If we abide in the love of Christ, we can experience wholeness
1. Be Faithful to Love
1 John 4:7-10 “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
God is perfectly whole in Himself. He doesn’t need our love to be happy or complete. Within the eternal unity of the Trinity, God is infinitely joyful, perfectly balanced and full of love.
This is what love looks like: not passive sentiment, but active, sacrificial initiative.
2. Be Filled with Love
1 John 4:11-16
“Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us. This is how we know that we live in Him and He in us: He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.”
When we meditate on the reality of the cross, we remember that Jesus has wiped away all of our sins – past, present and future. He has made us righteous and holy. This is the pathway to wholeness.
When others see how you forgive, serve and care for people, they see evidence of God’s wholeness in you.
3. Be Fearless in Love
1 John 4:17-21
“This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 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. 19 We love because He first loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And He has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”
The more we let fear take root, the more it strangles our experience of God’s love. Love for God and love for others are inseparable.
