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Whether you're seeking to show love and extend grace to your spouse, kids, parents, siblings, neighbors, church members, or fellow workers, this passage offers powerful and practical insights into how—and why—to do so. And while believers often point to 1 Corinthians 13 as The Love Passage (and pastors quote it often in wedding ceremonies), John has definitely offered a powerful "companion passage." And after all, why shouldn't we glean insights into love from "the disciple Jesus loved"?

1 John 4:7-16, 20-21

1. Where do we get the capacity to love others? (See vv. 7, 12-13, Eph. 5:18, and Gal. 5:22.)
   
2. What should be true for those who know God? (See v. 8.)
   
3. How did Jesus demonstrate God's great love for us? (See vv. 9-10 and Rom. 5:8.)
   
4. What do you think it means to put our "trust" (v. 16) in God's love?
   
5. Why is hatred toward fellow believers not an option? (See vv. 20-21.)
   
6. How does this passage demonstrate that love is an action rather than simply warm, fuzzy feelings? (See also 1 Cor. 13:4-7.)
   

Thank God for the grace and mercy he extends to you daily; confess the times you've failed to extend grace to your spouse, friends, and/or loved ones; ask God to fill you with his Spirit so that you will be more loving.

1 John 4:7-16, 20-21

7 Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 10 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. 12 No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.

13 And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us. 14 Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 All who confess that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. 16 We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love.

God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.

20 If someone says, "I love God," but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is a liar; for if we don't love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? 21 And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their Christian brothers and sisters.

Copyright © 2010 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

Dear heavenly Father, your grace is great! Without it I am forever lost. Empower me to extend grace to my wife because you have extended immeasurable grace to me.

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