By nature, human love is selfish and conditional. We love those who love us. We love people who are kind to us and who offer some benefit to us. God’s love is agape—self-sacrificing and unconditional. Agape loves those who don’t deserve our love, those who disappoint us, mistreat us, reject us, and even hate us. And agape is only possible when it is born of God in our hearts. Agape love is of God, initiated by God: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
John wants us to love one another with agape because this is how God loves. In today’s top ten list, we explore “ten things John says about love in 1 John.” Additional scriptures referenced include Luke 6:27-33; 1 John 2:7-8; 1 John 3:11; Galatians 1:8; 1 John 3:12-15; 1 John 4:12-16, 20-21; 1 John 5:1-2; 1 John 2:9-11; 1 John 3:17-18; 1 John 5:3; 1 John 2:5; 1 John 4:7-8; 1 Corinthians 13:4-8; 1 John 4:18-19; Romans 8:1; and John 3:18.
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