God's Love and Ours
"Dear friends, let us love
one another,for love comes
from God. Everyone who
loves has been born of God
and know God. Whoever does
not love does not know God,
because God is love.This is how
God showed his love among us:He
sent his one and only Son into the
world that we might live through
him. This is love:not that we love
God but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.
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 him. In this
way, love is made complete among
us so that we will have confidence
on the day of judgement, because
in this world we are like him.There is
no fear in love. But perfect love drives
out fear, because fear has to do with
punishment.The one who fears is not
made perfect in love.We love because
he first loved us. If anyone says, 'I love
God,' yet hates his brother, he is a liar.
For anyone who does not love his
brother, whom he has seen, cannot love
God, whom he has not seen. And he has
given us this command: Whoever loves
God must also love his brother. - 1 John 4: 7-21 (NIV Study Bible)
