Why Love
What is love? What keeps us from loving people? Why is love so important?
What does the Bible say about why we love and how? -
- God, source of love - 1 John 4v7-8
- What is love - 1 Corinthians 13v4-7
- God’s highest value - 1 Corinthians 13v1-3
- How love grows - 1John 4v16-17
- Protect love - 2Timothy 3v1-5
God, source of love
1 John 4v7-8
Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
Questions for reflection or discussion
- What does the Bible tell us of the source of love?
- What does this say about how we can become motivated to show love to others?
Thoughts to consider
Love comes from God. Those who demonstrate love show they are tapping into God because he is the source of love. We might not understand how a person taps in, but the outpouring of love demonstrates the reality.
What is love
1 John 4v9-10
God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
Questions for reflection or discussion
- How has God demonstrated his own love to us?
- How could love be expressed within your relationships?
Thoughts to consider
Few come up to Jesus' standard of love. If we allow him to lead then he will begin to change us so that this kind of love becomes attainable.
God’s highest value
1 John 4v11-12
Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.
Questions for reflection or discussion
- How do you see God’s value of love in this passage?
- How can we respond to God’s value of love in our own lives?
Thoughts to consider
We see God’s value of love by the way he unconditionally loves each person. As we see his love being expressed in the lives of people, then we begin to aspire to living that same love.
How love grows
1 John 4v16-17
God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.
Questions for reflection or discussion
- How is the relationship with God developed through showing his love?
- Why would this unity in love overcome fear?
Thoughts to consider
God by his power and by his Spirit is at work in all who live in love. It is his love that is being expressed through the person. Since this person has been united with Jesus in this act of love, there is confidence on the day we all meet Jesus. He has left his mark with this person.
Protect love
2 Timothy 3v1-5
You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!
Questions for reflection or discussion
- What qualities are evident in the lives of those who love themselves?
- What is the benefit of staying away from people who demonstrate these qualities?
Thoughts to consider
When people demonstrate these qualities there is something wrong. There might be good reason, and one does not want to judge what one does not understand. Nevertheless, it is good not to be dragged into these ways of thinking.
Overview questions for reflection or discussion
- How would you describe the relationship between love and God?
- How might one pause out of concern where people claim to follow Jesus but there seems little love?
