1 John 4:7-13

v7-8: God is love. “What attribute of the divine Majesty is communicated so clearly to the whole world as that of love?” God’s “nature and essence are love,” and “his will and works are primarily love.” God is love.

v9: God has shown His love for us by giving “his own, only beloved, blessed Son for us,” so that we might live through him, that is, “live in heaven, live with God, and live in eternal glory and blessedness with him and through him.”

v10: God loved us “even when we had no love for him.” He loved us first. “How amazing and wonderful that God would love us when we were” impure, guilty, corrupt, undeserving, defiled and unclean. “How amazing and wonderful that God would love us” by giving His Son to die for us, “under the law and curse of God,” “to be wounded in his soul and pierced in his side, to be dead and buried,” so that our sins can be washed away.

v11-13: “God’s love for our brothers and sisters should compel our love for them.” Those who are “the objects of God’s love should be the objects of ours.” Are they? Or “will we refuse to love those whom the eternal God has loved?”