Love One Another
What is the difference between knowing about God and knowing God?
Although it is a small letter, 1 John is packed full of ideas that have incredibly vast implications for what we believe and how we live. Three of the main themes covered in the letter are: sound doctrine about who Jesus is, obedience to his commands, and love. All three of these themes work together to give a full picture of what it looks like to genuinely know God through Jesus.
As we have gone through the first two chapters verse-by-verse, we have seen much of John's writing about the first two of these themes: sound doctrine and obedience. In Colby's message this week, we take a short detour from where we left off in 1 John and skip to chapter four, to touch on the last of the three major themes of the letter: love.
In 1 John 4 we receive the command to love one another, and the author elaborates that anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. But what exactly does it mean that God is love? And how does that inform the way that we love our brothers and sisters?