4/18 Sunday School "God Is...Love"

Introduction

Review. Last week we began the series called “God Is…” by looking at basically the first two chapters of 1 John. We said that “God is light”. We noted that God doesn’t live a private life, He is the same every second of every day, and has always been that way. We also discussed how, as followers of God, we cannot say that we belong to him and live a lifestyle of darkness, or with any hint of darkness.

Online, we had a discussion about the rest of the chapter dealing with the Antichrists. You can get on the blog and check out what you missed if you did not participate. Any questions from last week?

While I’m not sure that one word “best describes” God, this one comes close. Today, we are going to explore John’s discussion of God being love.

Bible Study/Exegesis (What it meant then)- 1 John 2:28-4:21

Everyone turn to 1 John 2:28. We are going to ready through chapter 4 today.

Read 1 John 2:28-29.

·      These verses serve as a transition between light and love. The reiterate the idea of Christians continuing a light-filled life, and staying away from the darkness.

Read 1 John 3:1-6

·      Just from these verses, what evidence do we have that God loves us?

·      We are also seeing a continuation of the idea that we are to strive to be like God.

Read 1 John 3:7-10

·      Is this saying that once we accept Christ we should no longer sin, and if we do we lose that salvation?

Read 1 John 3:11-24

·      We asked earlier for the evidence we have that God loves us. Let us now ask a similar question. From what we just read, what evidence should we give to the world that we are full of love?

·      1 John 4:1-6 will be our on-line discussion this week. We will be talking about false teachers and figuring out a way for us to identify them.

Read 1 John 4:7-21

·      John does the same thing here that he did with the discussion on God being light. He takes the truth that God is love, and now implies that we are to take that truth and live it out. Our actions and everything we do should reflect love. We should love God, love friends, and love enemies. We should be full of love.

Application/Hermeneutics (What it means now):

What is one thing you learned today?