In this powerful message, we explore how God's love becomes our True North—giving us unshakable confidence, clear direction, and joyful obedience. Just like a compass points north, Christ's perfect love guides us through life's uncertainties and fears.
WHEN GOD'S LOVE LEADS US, FEAR FADES, AND CONFIDENCE GROWS - 1 John 4:15-5:3
Introduction: The Problem of Disorientation
Key Question: How does God's love become our True North?
God's Love Gives Us Confidence (4:17-18)
1 John 4:17-18 (ESV)
"By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment... There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear."
God's Love Gives Direction (4:19-21)
1 John 4:19 (ESV)
"We love because he first loved us."
God's Love Makes Obedience Joyful (5:1-3)
1 John 5:3 (ESV)
"For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome."
God’s Word for You: Application
For Individuals:
For BBCC:
BBCC Verse of the Week: 1 John 4:17–18 (ESV) By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence... there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.
Johannine Ethics: John presents an ethical grounding for Christian life, which… is a call to evangelistic mission that is grounded in God’s love for the world and undergirded by communal love and unity. In fact, one could argue that without John’s moral vision centered on the cross, all ethical behavior would be just going through the motions. It is good to feed hungry people, but if those same people are heading toward their judgment without Christ, is it loving to give them bread but not the Bread of Life? Is it loving to affirm Christian brothers and sisters in their sin rather than call them to live as God has revealed in Scripture?
John does expect his readers to care for others in need (3:17–18), but the real and present danger of that moment was that his readers might be led astray and not continue in genuine faith in Jesus Christ (2:19; 3:7; 4:1–3; 2 John 7–11). As Köstenberger concludes:
John’s moral vision is simple yet profound. Knowing the world’s spiritual and moral darkness apart from the light—Jesus Christ—John holds out no hope for those without Christ. He does not discuss keeping the law; he does not explicitly address the issue of righteousness other than to urge rejection of sin (1 John 3:6; cf. 3:4–10); he does not engage the issue of works, other than to report Jesus’ answer to those who asked him what they must do to perform the works required by God: “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent” (John 6:29).
In a religiously pluralistic society, as we live in today, the greatest act of love—the sharing of God’s love in Christ—is increasingly perceived as a self-righteous power play that is taboo in polite company. Jesus was sent into such a world, and as he was returning to the Father he said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (John 20:21). This call to continue to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ in a pluralistic society increasingly hostile to the idea of exclusive spiritual truth will be the church’s greatest challenge in the years to come. – Karen Jobes
The primary motivation for keeping God’s commandments should be our love for Jesus, the one who gave them in the first place! Think about the Ten Commandments. “You shall have no other gods before me.” I suspect when you got up today you did not bow down before a golden idol in your home. But do we have other kinds of idols that we do worship? “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” Sunday is our Sabbath now. The day of resurrection is the Lord’s Day, and because of this we worship on the Lord’s Day. Are we keeping the Lord’s Day holy? “Honor your father and your mother.” How are we going about obeying this commandment? “You shall not murder.” This commandment about murder doesn’t seem too hard to keep. But in Matthew 5 Jesus said we can break this commandment in our heart by hating a brother or wishing that somebody were dead (Matthew 5:21, 22). What about “you shall not commit adultery”? This one is not hard either, right? But Jesus said if we look on a woman lustfully, we have already committed adultery in our heart (Matthew 5:27, 28). “You shall not steal” sounds easy enough to keep. All I need to do is make sure I don’t rob a bank or take anything from anybody that is not mine. Have we ever plagiarized, cheated on a test, or misinformed the IRS on our taxes? We could go through each of the Ten Commandments, but you get the point. If we love God, we will do as he says, and if we love our neighbor as ourselves we will not murder him, commit adultery with his wife, steal from him, lie to him, or covet anything he possesses. We can measure our love for God by how well our lifestyle matches our Maker’s instructions! That is also why he says at the end of verse 3 that God’s commandments are not “burdensome.” The word in Greek means “heavy, hard to bear.” God’s commandments are not burdensome when we love God and we have been born of God. When we submit our will to the Spirit of God, his commands are not burdensome. God’s commandments are given for our spiritual good, and to disobey them could bring disaster. --David Allen
For next week – read 1 John 5:3-13 Pastor Samuel Sutter // sam@BBCCOnline.org
