New Woodstock Community Church Sermons

10/5/2025 - "We Love Because He First Loved Us” (I John 4:15-21) by Elder Owen Simiele at New Woodstock Community Church.

Sermon Outline:
“We Love Because He First Loved Us” (I John 4:15-21)

A) Love: A Work of Faith

B) Love: Casting Out Fear

C) Love: Because It’s Commanded

Owen's previous sermon on 1 John 4:7-14 was given off location and wasn't recorded. For your reference we've included his written sermon in this episode's description.

Sermon Outline: “A Love Like No Other” (1 John 4:7-14)
A) Love is from God - vv. 7-8
B) Love That Takes the Initiative - vv. 9-11
C) Love’s Assurance - vv. 12-13
D) Love’s Exhortation - vv. 14

L - Sabrina and I were married about two years, I had become saved, and as I started being in the Bible more, I came upon the verses concerning a woman honoring her husband. I never took into account the verses that told me to love my wife as Christ loved the church - which means total sacrifice. I never saw Peters writing that I should live with my wife in an understanding way - as the weaker vessel - so that my prayers would not be hindered. Instead - I saw my wife as the one who should honor me first - as I was the head, the…..boss. The bitterness turned anger, into arguments, into yelling. It reached it’s crescendo when I left work one day, not sure if I would return home again.

I ended up finding myself at Barney’s house. I explained in depth Sabrina’s lack of respect, Sabrina’s failings as a wife, how I had been praying for her to be a better wife….and how I could not put up with it anymore. After listening patiently, Barney gave me his counsel. He said to me, “I want you to stop praying for your wife. I want you pray that the Lord would give you His love for your wife."

I was dumbfounded, because that's why I married her right? Because I loved her, wasn't it?? So I prayed. I didn't add prerequisites that she would act better, or be more honoring - I only prayed that God would give me his love for her. In doing so, I realized, I didn't love her sacrificially. I loved her with a love that had expectations as to who she would be, and what she would do as my wife. It wasn't a love from God - It was a selfish love that came with expectations - mine.

S - John is reminding his readers of their love for one another - but it is a love from God - not from themselves.

D - We left off last week with John directing his readers to test the spirits

A powerful statement, full of apostolic authority aimed to remind his readers that right doctrine comes from the apostles Christ has ordained to teach the churches. But in light of such a direct statement - there very well may be a surge in the desire to get things right - and to be overly harsh in their examination of others.

So John reminds them in verse 7 - Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

So for those who seek false spirits under every rock and behind every tree, this would be a reminder of who they are to be in Christ.

But whose love is John speaking about? Turn with me to Romans 5.

So the love that his readers are to have toward one another is not something they can produce or manufacture on our own.

Hence why verse 7, John writes, “for love is from God”!

The love of feelings, or affirmations of others in sin, is a human love.

So what does the love of God look like? We are going to look at several verses, so bear with me. Turn with me to Hebrews 6 -

I will not go into the full context of this verse, as it can stand on its own:

Notice how the writer of Hebrews encourages his readers, that God does see the work and love that they have shown toward His name…..How is that defined? - in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints.

His readers are loving other saints - and it is work and it is in love.

What do we think this means? Work of faith, labor of love, steadfastness of hope?

Do we really want to understand the love of God? The love of God is not a Hallmark movie.

Turn with me to 1 Cor 13. Look down to verse 1 through verse 13. Paul writes here coming out of chapter 12 and the believers heavy emphasis on spiritual gifts - because they have forgotten what is most important -

Did you see verse 5:

It is not provoked - it does NOT take into account a wrong suffered - it bears all things - and endures all things…..

Turn with me back to 1 John 4 - This is why in verse 7 John continues by saying: “everyone who loves is born of God, and knows God.”

Because his readers can't possibly labor in love as God calls them to, unless they are born of God.

This is not an easy love - so John writes -

BUT!!! - There is still a love here - a love for self.

Without relationship with God - the Holy Spirit is not there to pour His love into your heart.

We can only love with a love that will not bear or endure all things - at the root it will always be love of self.

If you are a Christian, you are called to a love which will be difficult.

You're not allowed to throw relationships off to the side when it's hard, or throw them away altogether.

You are called to a sacrificial love.

When others tell you it’s not worth the effort, you will endure.

When others turn away, you will turn toward.

Brethren - We are called to a love that hurts, tears at our heart, and will cause pain.

John is going to show his readers that we weren't the first to do so.

L - In 2 Samuel we read of King David. By chapter 5 the throne of a united nation is His his. His predecessor King Saul has been vanquished by the Philistines - The King Saul who once desired David's death.

David has moved the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem.

God has sent his messenger Nathan to David, and has promised him a Descendant. This Descendant, God will establish the throne of His kingdom forever.

David at this point lacks nothing. He has everything he needs. Yet David asks this question in 2 Sam 9:

David is asking - is there anyone of the house of mine enemy I might bless because of my friend Jonathan?

Right before Chapter 9, the Scriptures in chapter 8, list all that David had defeated, and the penalties he had put upon the peoples and lands he had captured. Yet, David takes one who deserved nothing. Who was a family member of the vanquished. Yet fed him as one of His own, and gave him abundant blessing beyond anything he had ever known or even be able to use - none of which was earned, or deserved.

S - But even David’s love toward Mephibosheth does not compare to the love of God in Christ.

D - John has spoken to his readers of the love we should have toward others, now John brings out for all to see - the greatest love:

John begins with the statement “By this the love of God was manifested in us…”

The verse continues to say that His love is manifested or shown in us,

God sends a physical Son into the world, not to bestow worldly riches or fame upon a chosen few - But God does something completely different. Turn with me to Titus 3:4-6 - 4 But when the kindness of God our Savior and [His] love for mankind appeared,

The love of God is manifested in us as a spiritual change wrought by a physical human - the Son of God, the Son of Man - who gives His life. The Son of God comes to earth, not toward financial gain, or wealth, or national freedom to Israel - but to give us new life that we might live through Him!

---- NEXT VERSE ----

Now, John said, the love of God was manifested - next John says in verse 10. “In this is love…”

The first two words here and in verse 9 are actually the same two words in the Greek, just translated differently -

So in verse 9 - “By this love was manifest or shown in us….” and John explains it.

Now in verse 10 - “In this is love” - and John is going to explain it.

Note that John makes a singular point that must be noted and considered:

Let's look at some passages that help us understand this. Turn with me to Romans:

So how interested were we, brothers and sisters, in loving God?  

The Father sends His Son - The Father moves toward us, though we make no motion toward Him.

If God so loved us……

We saw this before -

The Sacrificial love we say in verse 7 and 8, demonstrated for us by God through Christ in 9-11…..

We are to take the initiative to love others.

When we do this, John will show his readers that the desire to love others is an assurance, a proof that God abides in them.

L - I don’t know if you remember a couple weeks ago I mentioned putting in an on-demand water heater. They have no tank. They are small and just hang on the wall. They take two 40 amp breakers. And of course the water hookups.

The great thing is, that when I’m done hooking them up, I know within a minute if everything is hooked up correctly. If I get hot water, I don't need to go back and see the wiring or the connections - I know they’re working.

I can know the electric is correct, and I can know the water connections are in place - everything is as it should be - that hot water out of the tap is a great assurance!

S - This is what John will show his readers now - that when they love one another, as believers - everything is in place as it should be.

P - 1 John 4:12-13 - 12 No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.

D - We know from Exodus 33, that it is written that “no one has seen God and lived”.

But John gives his readers an assurance here that even as they have never seen God or Christ, - He is still with them.

Turn with me to John 14:7-10 - 7 "If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him." 8 Philip said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." 9 Jesus said to him, "Have I been so long with you, and [yet] you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how [can] you say, 'Show us the Father'? 10 "Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.

We know we see the Father when we look at Jesus in the word, because Jesus only did as the Father commanded. Jesus put the Father on display - we see the Father through Him.

Turn a page back now:

Though the Father is not seen physically - He is seen through His Son - and those who accept His Son as Savior….

It is no wonder that we see over and over verses that say:

To follow Christ, to love one another - shows others that “God abides in us.” Our lives are to step by step - follow in the steps of our Savior who loved us first:

John finishes v. 12 by saying that when his readers love one another His love is perfected in them.

Thus they are assured that God’s work in them is completed - they are saved and have a relationship with Him - though never having seen Him.

John then reiterates this in verse 13- By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. As we saw back in verse 13:24, John now says again for his readers - they can know they are in Him, and He is in them - because the Holy Spirit has taken up residence in them.

A - So in applying this today- the fact we have Christian fellowship - that we love one another past faults and failings - That we seek to encourage one another in Christ. —-> This love for one another -

 

I want to spend just a minute on verse 14 before we close.

This is John’s last word in our conversation today on loving one another.

I want you to look back to verses 10 and 11:

John is describing for His readers all that God has done for them - and because of the love He has shown them - John's readers should then love one another in the same manner. Then He says to them in verse 12 - “No one has ever seen God at any time.

Now John in verse 14 seems to say loudly to them - 1 John 4:14 - We (the apostles) have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son [to be] the Savior of the world.

It as if John is saying,

We tend to read this, and speak of it in general terms.

But the call to love one another can only be applied person by person.

YOU need to come to grips with this…

To love my wife, I had to give up all claims of being right in this situation and seek for the Love of God poured in me for her. - not my own love.

Maybe you're sitting there and you have no idea what it is to love sacrificially. You have been loving with a love of emotion - and the emotions have run out. You need a different love - the love of God that He pours in, and keeps pouring in. You don't run out of the love of God.

But in order to have the love of God for others, you must accept the love of God for yourself. Have you accepted the love of God He displayed in sending His Son Jesus to the cross?

Are you willing to give up all you want, and seek what you need, the forgiveness of your sins and relationship with the Father in Heaven?  

I encourage you, not to be sorry, but to confess your sins, and repent of living in rebellion against God - and turn your life over to Him - He will abundantly forgive, and accept you as His child.