Unconditional Love

RELATIONSHIP REALITIES - UNCONDITIONAL LOVE

Key Point: God's love sees past our flaws and reflects our identity in Him | 2 Corinthians 5:17

• This illustration makes God's unconditional love visual and personal. Would you like to add any specific points or tailor it to your church's theme?

Main Text: 1 John 4:7-21 (MSG)

GOD IS LOVE

7-10 My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God.

• Since love comes from God, it's going to be hard to display this kind of love outside of a relationship with God

• It' almost impossible to give what you don't know or have

Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God.

A. Question, how do I know that I am born of God?

B. Great question, have you giving your life over to God

C. Have you made Jesus Lord of your life?

The person who refuses to love doesn't know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can't know him if you don't love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him.

A. So love is shown through sacrificially actions

B. Love gives

C. Love give the best

D. Love lays down it's for others

This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God.

A. Anybody done some damage to their relationship

B. Let me be the first person to raise their hand

C. I'm not asking anyone to raise their hands

D. I just know that I was not the best for a season in our relationship

E. But, God and a forgiving wife

F. Love First and all that God has allowed would not be here, if it was not for Charmaine being who she is

11-12 My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love!

• No one has seen God, but people can see God in us, by how we treat each other

13-16 This is how we know we're living steadily and deeply in him, and he in us: He's given us life from his life, from his very own Spirit. Also, we've seen for ourselves and continue to state openly that the Father sent his Son as Savior of the world. Everyone who confesses that Jesus is God's Son participates continuously in an intimate relationship with God. We know it so well, we've embraced it heart and soul, this love that comes from God.

To Love, to Be Loved

17-18 God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we're free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ's. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.

A. Too many of us are living in fear about what will happen

B. What my spouse may or may not do?

C. Charmaine felt that way, Pastor Tracy gave her a word

19 We, though, are going to love—love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first. 20-21 If anyone boasts, "I love God," and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won't love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can't see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You've got to love both.

1 Peter 4:8 (NLT) 8 Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins.

1 Corinthians 13:3-10 (MSG)

3-7 If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.

Love cares more for others than for self.

Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.

Love doesn't strut,

Doesn't have a swelled head,

Doesn't force itself on others,

Isn't always "me first,"

Doesn't fly off the handle,

Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,

Doesn't revel when others grovel,

Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,

Puts up with anything,

Trusts God always,

Always looks for the best,

Never looks back,

But keeps going to the end.

8-10 Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.

Discussion Questions

1. The dirty mirror illustration shows how sin distorts our view of ourselves, but God's love sees us clearly. How does understanding God's unconditional love for you change the way you love your spouse?
2. 1 John 4:7-8 says "love comes from God" and "God is love." The notes state it's "almost impossible to give what you don't know or have." How does your relationship with God directly impact your ability to love unconditionally in marriage?
3. The passage emphasizes that "love is shown through sacrificial actions." What does sacrificial love look like practically in everyday marriage, not just in grand gestures?
4. The pastor admits, "I was not the best for a season in our relationship." How does vulnerability and honesty about our failures create space for genuine love and healing in marriage?
5. "No one has seen God, but people can see God in us, by how we treat each other." What do others see about God when they observe your marriage? What would you like them to see?
6. 1 John 4:18 says "there is no room in love for fear" and "well-formed love banishes fear." What fears exist in your relationship (fear of rejection, abandonment, judgment)? How can mature love address these fears?
7. The command is "blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You've got to love both." Why is it hypocritical to claim we love God while treating our spouse poorly? How does loving your spouse honor God?
8. 1 Peter 4:8 says "love covers a multitude of sins." What does this mean practically? How is this different from enabling bad behavior or avoiding accountability?
9. Looking at the 1 Corinthians 13 description of love, which characteristic challenges you most? (never gives up, doesn't keep score, always looks for the best, etc.)
10. "Love never dies...but when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled." How does knowing that love is eternal (while spiritual gifts are temporary) change your priorities in marriage?

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