For Reading and Meditation:      1 John 4:7-16We turn now to consider another aspect of God's nature and character - love. There are three things told us in Scripture concerning the nature of God. First, "God is spirit" (John 4:24), which means He has no visible substance. Second, "God is light" (1 John 1:5), which means no darkness can dwell in Him. In Scripture darkness stands for sin, death, and so on. Third, "God is love," which means that the energy that flows out from His Being is that of infinite, eternal beneficence. When John wrote the words "God is love" it was no slick statement, as it was the first time in history that the phrase had been used in that way. People had believed that God was love, and had speculated about His benevolence, but now the categorical statement is laid down for all to behold. These words, in my judgment, are the high-water mark of divine revelation; nothing more needs to be said for nothing greater can be said. I often create a mental picture for myself of the angels peering over the battlements of heaven as John wrote those words and then, when they had been written down, I imagine them breaking into rapturous applause and saying to each other: "They've got it. They've got it! At last they see that God is love." And a sigh of deep satisfaction and great joy would have filled the portals of heaven in the knowledge that the greatest truth about God was now made crystal clear. The implied was now inscribed.O Father, I am so thankful that You have demonstrated categorically that the greatest thing about You is love. My heart gladly rests upon that glorious fact. I look forward to exploring it forever. Amen.<div class="tl-lightgrey mt20 pt20 flexbox-row-wrap jc-around"><div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">AdditionalVerses</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li>Jeremiah 31:1-4</li><li>John 3:16</li><li>Romans 5:8</li></ul></div>

<div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">Questions to Consider</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li>What did the Lord appear and say?</li><li>How did He demonstrate this?</li></ul></div></div>

Let a little light into your soul every day with this wonderful devotional from English pastor Selwyn Hughes.

Every Day Light with Selwyn Hughes

"God is love." (v. 16)

For Reading and Meditation:      Hebrews 10:19-25In every religion in the world apart from Christianity there is a note of uncertainty concerning this matter of personal salvation. Many modern religious attitudes are expressed in the limerick: For as much as without Thee We are not able to doubt Thee, O grant us Thy grace To inform the whole race That we know nothing whatever about Thee. Can we be satisfied with this? St. Augustine said he wished to be as certain of things unseen as that seven and three make ten. The human heart longs for certainty - it needs to know without a shadow of doubt that the salvation of the soul is secure. The good news is that in Jesus Christ such security is found. When we turn from other religions to the Word of God, it is like stepping out of thick fog into clear and brilliant sunlight. Our text today talks not just of assurance but full assurance - the full assurance of faith. What is faith? Faith is simply taking God at His Word, accepting what He asserts and acting accordingly. Listen to just one of the many things God says concerning this matter: "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved" (Romans 10:13). Have you called on Christ and received Him into your heart? Then you have scriptural warrant for believing on that basis alone, quite apart from personal feelings, that you are a child of God, and that you are going to spend eternity with Him. What a salvation! What a Savior! My Father and my God, what a joy it is to know that You make available to me not just assurance but full assurance. Fill the cup of my heart until it is overflowing with the sense of divine assurance. And keep it full, dear Father. In Jesus' Name. Amen.<div class="tl-lightgrey mt20 pt20 flexbox-row-wrap jc-around"><div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">AdditionalVerses</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li>1 Thessalonians 1:1-10</li><li>1 John 2:3-6</li><li>1 John 3:16-20</li><li>1 John 4:13-16</li><li>1 John 5:10</li></ul></div>

<div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">Questions to Consider</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li>What is a recurring theme in 1John?</li><li>Why not make the same confession to someone today?</li></ul></div></div>

"... let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith ..." (v. 22) 

For Reading and Meditation:      1 John 4:7-21There have been two great attempts to find God throughout the ages," said Dr. E. Stanley Jones, "one, philosophy, the other, moralism." The attempts of philosophy to find God are represented by the three great philosophical nations - Greece, India, and China. These three nations have taken men and women about as far as it is possible to philosophical reasoning. Philosophy has strained itself to the utmost and yet it has not been successful in finding God. Lao-tzu, the Chinese philosopher, said the final word about God is Silence, and Shankaracharya, the Indian philosopher, said the final word about God is not that. They both concluded at zero. Moralism, likewise, cannot lead to God. The attempt to find God through the law was the noble effort made by the Jews. Never was such a moral system devised as theirs, nor an end result so disappointing. It produced, for instance, the Pharisee who stood in his pride and said: "God, I thank you that I am not like other men" (Luke 18:11). Jesus pronounced doom on the Pharisee's attempt to find God through moralism when He said: "Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:20). They could not reach the kingdom by even their greatest self-effort alone. Both philosophy and moralism fall short. When our best was not good enough, when our highest attempts could not lead to the kingdom, God came down Himself to lift us. Now no one need say in his or her quest for God: "Not that."O God, Your down-reach is my only hope. My up-reach is feeble and goes little higher than my head. Your down-reach, however, goes to the lowest of the low-it reaches me. I take hold of Your grace and I am lifted - to You. Blessed be Your Name forever. Amen.<div class="tl-lightgrey mt20 pt20 flexbox-row-wrap jc-around"><div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">AdditionalVerses</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li>Romans 5:1-8</li><li>Ephesians 2:4-5</li><li>John 3:16</li><li>2 Timothy 3:5</li></ul></div>

<div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">Questions to Consider</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li>What is the result of moralism?</li><li>What is the heart of Christianity?</li></ul></div></div>

"... God ... sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him." (v. 9)

It is the present heaven of the saints, to know and believe the love that God hath to them. None can reveal it to us, or shed it abroad in our hearts, but the Holy Ghost. He can direct our hearts into the love of God, and into the patience of Jesus Christ. He is in office to show the saints the things of God, and enable them to believe and enjoy them.Let us, beloved, daily pray that we may know and enjoy the love that God hath to us; it will be an antidote to all our miseries, a source of joy under all our sorrows. Our friends and frames may change, but the love of God is unchangeable. Our temporal prospects may be all blighted, but if we know and enjoy the love of God, we cannot be unhappy.Who, or what shall separate us from the love of God? Jesus has told us that we shall never perish, neither shall any pluck us out of His hand. The love of our God is the source of our happiness, and the cause of our safety. Oh, to know and believe the love which God hath to us. God is love.What shall I do my God to love? My loving God to praise? The length, and breadth, and height to prove, And depth of sovereign grace?

Written by James Smith for his own flock around 1840, but such was the demand that by 1846 over thirty thousand copies where in circulation.

The Believer's Daily Remembrancer

The love that God hath to us. - 1 John 4:16

Let us define. But who can define? For the interpretation of this word, love is the interpretation of God. It is easy to say that love is a delight in the happiness of the loved. But the mind will not rest satisfied with this definition; it again and again replies, that the meaning includes more. Love cannot be defined, for it is itself a definition, the definition of God; but it may be described in its operations and effects. The love that God has towards you, passes knowledge. The whole universe is intended to express it. When he reared the sublime mountains and clothed the plains in beauty, he said, this is for my beloved. The course of his providence is commissioned to express it. Your own form is a revelation of his love to you. Your endowments are other utterances of the same. His word and all the marvels of redemption are a token of love given to you over the head of angels. In its augmenting utterances, the divine love stops not with the cross of Christ. It comes to the believer and says, " Be thy heart emptied that I may dwell therein, and render thine eyes, thy tongue, thy hands, thy possessions, thy time, thy all, expressive of the love that God bears to thy fellow-believer.' Every believer is thus made to become another multiple of that love that is enthroned on the throne of the universe. There never was a door opened in heaven so wide as this word. We learn from it the mystery of heaven. We see what is the nature of its felicity. Sin has armed all its host against love, and hath given a commandment that if any man know where it be, he may show it, that it may be taken. Fiery darts fall thick and fast about him that gives it a home. The ugliness of man's nature becomes gigantic, and, seizing a tremendous spear, says, " Love, if thou darest." But here, as elsewhere, there is a victory for faith. To abide in love is to abide in the thoughts of God's love, in the memory and consciousness of Christ's love, in the sense of one's own unworthiness and in the renunciation of self, in the rejection of selfish pleasure and advantage, and the study of the true happiness of others, in intercession, in the Holy Spirit, in the faith that discerns a present God and knows how to discover the relations of every creature to God. Especially is it to abide in the great thought that Christ tasted death for every man, and that your life is to be an embodiment of the gospel for every creature. And if you set about this heartily, with entire consecration, it may please God to help you by a wonderful device of his own. But this is a secret.

A daily devotional written by a Baptist Missionary to India, Reverend George Bowen (1816-1888) over 150 years ago.

Bowen's Daily Meditations

"God is love, and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him." - 1 John 4:16. 

1 John 4:7-16"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love ." One reason why Christians should love one another, is because God would have them interpret His love to the world, and this they can do, only by love. Anything unloving - is not of God. We ought to think of this - that it is our mission - to let the world know what God is like. A great many people do not know God, do not know what His character is. We know Him and we are to make Him known to others. This we cannot do merely by telling them about God. The Bible is full of revealings of God - but it is not enough for us to read the Bible to people. It does little good for us to quote texts which tell of God's goodness, kindness and holiness - if we cannot show the goodness, kindness and holiness in our own life! The only Bible we can really get others to read - is the one written in our own conduct, disposition and character! People must see God's love in us.When Mr. McAll went to Paris to begin his mission work, he knew only a few words of French. All he could say was, "God loves you, and I love you." His message was that God loved the people to whom he was speaking - but this would not have been listened to by them - if they had not seen the love also in the preacher. That is, the love of God was interpreted to them, in himself. We must give the same interpretation.There is no other love like God's. There has always been love in the world. Mothers have always loved their children. There have always been tender home affections. Men have always loved their country. But these are only little fragments of love, imperfect and faulty at best. The great fountain and center of all love - is God's love. It is to all other love - as the sun is to all earth's little candles. God's love is love which does not depend on our love to draw it out. God does not love us because we love Him - if that were true, we would never have God's love. The message of the gospel is not that we should love God - but that God loves us. It makes a great deal of difference how we read the words. Which love comes first - ours, or God's? Our confidence is not in our love for God, which is very weak, faulty and ever changing - but in God's love for us. This is infinite, eternal, and never changes. Whatever our need or feelings may be, we may always be sure that the love of God is everlasting, the same yesterday and today and forever."The Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world." We think of the holy child sleeping His first infancy's sleep in the manger, and we hear the angel say, "There is born to you this day in the city of David - a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." It is because God loved the world - that He gave His only begotten Son!It is knowing and believing the love of God in Jesus Christ, which saves us. It is possible to know it and not sincerely believe it. To be blessed by it - we must believe that God loves us with an individual, personal love, and must let His love into our hearts. A story is told of a child in Luther's day, who for the first time heard and believed this love. She lived in a home where only severe thoughts of God were known. The name of God was used to frighten the children. Every mention of God made the child tremble. She had learned to think of Him as her enemy, watching her only to punish her. One day she found on the floor of her father's printing office a piece of torn paper with some words printed on it. Picking it up, she began to read, "God so loved the world, that he gave," it was torn off here. She did not know what followed. But the thought that God loved was an altogether new one for her. If He loved the world He could not be such a terrible God as she had been taught to believe Him to be. "God so loved the world that he gave," her paper said. What He gave, she did not know - but if He loved enough to give anything, He must be a kind and good God. So her thought ran on until, by and by, a new conception of God had taken possession of her heart. With nothing more than this little fragment of a verse - she had received a great truth, and the thought of God had become a wonderful blessing to her. She knew and believed the love that God had for her, and it saved her. This is the lesson all of us need to learn afresh!

A unique type of devotional from the writings of James Russell Miller, published between 1908 and 1913.

Devotional Hours Within the Bible

1 John 4:7-16

God's Love in the Gift of His Son

We walk by faith, not by sight. § We love Him because He first loved us. § 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 Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. § To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” § Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.

Daily Light on the Daily Path or Daily Light is a Christian daily devotional scripture reading published by Bagster & Sons about 1875. It has been reprinted continually since then. It consists of brief groupings of scripture passages which speak to prominent Biblical themes—two themes (morning and evening) for each day of the year. It appends no commentary, but simply allows scripture to speak for itself.

Morning Daily Light

 Whom having not seen you love. 

God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. § The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. § To you who believe, He is precious. § We love Him because He first loved us. § The love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. You yourselves are taught by God to love one another. § This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. § Above all things have fervent love for one another, for “love will cover a multitude of sins.” § Walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.

 The fruit of the Spirit is love. 

God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. § He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? § The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works. We love Him because He first loved us. Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.

 We have known and believed the love that God has for us. 

And it will be that when he cries to Me, I will hear, for I am gracious. 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. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. § For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. § We have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him. § Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

 The king held out  … the golden scepter …Then Esther went near and touched the top of the scepter. 

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. § The fruit of the Spirit is love. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples. As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. § Whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. § This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. § God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. § God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

Evening Daily Light

 Keep yourselves in the love of God. 

<blockquote>
We have known and believed the love that God hath to us" (<a id="verse_1632880516689814" href="https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/1-John/4/16">1 John 4:16</a>).
</blockquote> The Spirit convicts us of sins that we may be convinced of God’s cleansing. We do not deserve to be forgiven, but the Lord Jesus deserves to be trusted."We find the greatest difficulty often in bringing our sorrow to God. How can I do so, some may be saying, as my sorrow is the fruit of my sin? How can I take it to God? If it was suffering for righteousness' sake, then I would, but I am suffering for my sin; and can I, in the integrity of my heart towards God, take my sorrows to Him, knowing I deserve them?"Yes: the Lord Jesus has been to God about them. This, then, is the ground on which I can go. There has been perfect atonement for all my sins; Christ has been judged for them. Will God judge us both? No; I go to Him on the ground of atonement, and God can justly meet me in all my sorrow, because Christ's work has been so perfectly done." -J.N.D."The guilt which the throne detects, the altar removes. If in the light of the throne one object is seen, namely, ruined, guilty, undone self; then, in the light of the altar, one object is seen, namely, a full, precious, all-sufficient Christ. The remedy reaches to the full extent of the ruin, and the same light that reveals the one reveals the other likewise. This gives settled repose to the conscience. God Himself has provided a remedy for all ruin which the light of His throne has revealed.""If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin" (<a id="verse_1632880516791941" href="https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/1-John/1/7">1 John 1:7</a>).

A 365 day devotional that will help you in your Christian growth and walk with the Lord Jesus Christ.  This devotional is a collection of quotes from some of the best authors in the realm of Christian growth that has been organized by Miles J Stanford.  This devotional study is divided into 12 sections each containing 31 daily portions.

None but the Hungry Heart

 Proffered Provision 

16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.<pb/>God is love.<cr>1</cr> Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.<cr>2</cr>

1 John 4:16

 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love.   Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.  

From Wikipedia: 

The New International Version (NIV) is an English translation of the Bible first published in 1978 by Biblica (formerly the International Bible Society). The NIV was published to meet the need for a modern translation done by Bible scholars using the earliest, highest quality manuscripts available. Of equal importance was that the Bible be expressed in broadly understood modern English.

The NIV is published by Zondervan in the United States and Hodder & Stoughton in the UK. The NIV was updated in 1984 and 2011 and has become one of the most popular and best-selling modern translations.

OT: Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia; additional sources;
NT: UBS Greek New Testament; Novum Testamentum Graece; additional sources;

New International Version

 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love.   Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.  

Bible Verse of the Day

December 13, 2018

1 John 4:16 NIV

Verse by Verse Bible Study

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