Love Story.

• 1 John 4:9 (ASV)
• 1 John 4:10 (ASV)
• 1 John 4:11 (ASV)

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John's description of god's love in this chapter always melts my heart. Just like Jesus answering the question about the greatest commandment, 1 John 4 highlights what I think is the quintessential message in God's Word: "I Love You"

"I Love You" is what we need to hear, what we need to know, what we need to understand. "I Love you" is what God is saying over and over and over to us throughout the Bible, throughout history, and throughout our lives. "I Love You" is the most amazing, thrilling, glorious, scary, exciting, convicting, wonderful thing for us to hear.

In this chapter, John continues to tell us about the love story that we are a part of. In these verses, John boils it down to the essential plot of the love story: "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."

Praise be to God!

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