1 John 3:16-20
The Message
16-17 This is how we’ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears. And you made it disappear.
When We Practice Real Love
18-20 My dear children, let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice real love. This is the only way we’ll know we’re living truly, living in God’s reality. It’s also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves.
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1 John 3:16-18
New International Version
16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.(A) And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.(B) 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them,(C) how can the love of God be in that person?(D) 18 Dear children,(E) let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.(F)
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson
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