1 John 2:3-11 | The Love of God
Blair Robinson | November 09, 2025
Scripture: 1 John 2:3-11
Main Idea. Those who truly know God will reflect the obedience and love of Christ. Question. How can we know that we truly know God? 1. Knowing God means walking as Jesus walked. (Obedience) (vv. 3–6) John 8:47 Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God. John 15:3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. John 5:19 The Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. 1 John 4:19 We love because he first loved us. Consider God’s love for us: John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Romans 5:8 But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 1 John 4:9–10 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. New Covenant. Jer 31:31–34 I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. Ezk 36:26–27 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. John 16:13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, Application. Will you obey the law perfectly? 1. No. We still sin. 2. Yes. By union with Christ, His perfect obedience to the law is counted as ours. Romans 5:19: By the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Application. 1. We are to keep Christ’s commands. 2. Knowing God means loving as Jesus loved. (Love) (vv. 7–11) John 13:34,35 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. Deut 6:5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. Lev. 19:34 You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. Application. 1. How are we doing in our love for one another? Takeaways. Our obedience is not the cause of knowing God, it’s the evidence that God graciously united us to Christ. Our love is not merely a moral obligation, but the overflow of Christ’s communion.