1 John 4:13-16 God is love!

John 3:17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved

We love others because God first loved us!

1 John 4:7–9 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

God’s agape love for His creation in the gift of salvation of Jesus Christ saves the world from self destruction. The Father’s great love for us overcomes the evil that wants to destroy us. We are sealed by the very heart of God, Holy Spirit. I am so very thankful!

1 John 4:13-16 this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

In order for us to experience the fullness of the Godhead we must believe that He exists and is a rewarder of those who place their lives in His hands. It is finished in the work of the cross and we are saved in God’s mercy and grace. Carla

God’s Spirit not only resides in believers, but teaches them the truth concerning the saving work of the incarnate Christ (1 John 4:14; 3:24).  

Savior of the world describes  the purpose of Christ’s incarnation—to rescue humanity from sin (1:7; 2:2; 4:10). 

John wants his audience to understand that properly responding to Christ’s saving act requires affirmation of Christ’s existence in bodily form (1:9; 4:2). By implication, the false teachers reject the basis of God’s plan of salvation by denying that Christ was the Son of God in the flesh. God resides in him through the work of God as Holy Spirit in the life of a believer (2:24; 3:23–24).

Who resides in love resides in God, this phrase, which continues the thought from verse 15, represents the main point of John’s letter: A person who is truly a Christian and part of the Christian community correctly identifies Jesus as the incarnate Son of God. 

Christians demonstrate their belief in Jesus by loving others, admitting sin, and letting God transform their life (1:6–7; 2:10, 19). These actions also define a person as a true child of God and a member of the believing community. Faithlife Study Bible

By this looks forward to the evidence of His Spirit rather than back to the evidence of love (verse 7–11) for proof that we abide in Him, and He in us (3:24). 

Mutual abiding refers to the fellowship we have with God as a result of our salvation. The evidence that God abides in us and we in Him is the experience of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. In the remainder of this passage (verses 12–16), John explains how a believer can know that the Spirit is working in his or her life (verses 15, 16). A sincere confession of belief is an indication that the confessor is saved. 

To be a Christian, a person must believe that Jesus is the Son of God. And we have known is parallel to “and we have seen” in verse 14. Abides in love means the Christian lives within the sphere of God’s love. That love is both experienced and expressed through the Christian’s life. The NKJV Study Bible

1 John 3:23–24 And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.

1 John 5:5 Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

1 John 2:23–24 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. 

I read this affirmation today from Anne Lamott (in the LA Times). “Hope comes in many forms: When I hear the songs of the civil rights movement at our marches, a soft gong sounds. 

The poet Jack Gilbert wrote, ‘We must admit that there will be music despite everything.’ 

Ever since I heard the author Caroline Myss say that when darkness and evil go nuclear, love and hope must go nuclear too, I started getting occasional manicures with glittery polish, to remind me…excerpt from “Sabbath Moments”