Sep 28, 2014 |I Know

Flipping Love

09.28.14 | I Know

Flipping Love

Noel Heikkinen

Pastor Noel Heikkinen teaches about Jesus’ command to love one another from 1 John in the series “I Know”.

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I know, therefore, I obey; I obey, therefore, I know that I know.

Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. (1 John 2:4-6)

I know, therefore, I love; I love, therefore, I know that I know.

Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. (1 John 2:7)

This is about love.

And now I ask you, dear lady – not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning – that we love one another. (2 John 5)

At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. (1 John 2:8)

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. (John 15:12-14)

Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. (1 John 2:9-11)

For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. (1 John 3:11-12)

Because God loved us first, we are able to abide in His love and love others, although the world may hate us.

Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. (1 John 3:13)

If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. (John 15:18-19)

We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. (1 John 3:14-16)

But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. (1 John 3:17-18)

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (1 John 4:7-11)

I know, therefore, I love; I love, therefore, I know that I know.

No one has ever seen God; if we love on another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. (1 John 4:12)

No one has seen God. But they have seen you. You are the light of the world. When you love even those who hate you. When you lay down your life for the brothers, the people around you, even if they aren’t looking for God, will see him.

Youth