God Is Love

Rev. Jeff Hemmer, pastor at Bethany Lutheran Church in Fairview Heights, IL, and assistant to the president of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, joins host Rev. Timothy Appel to study 1 John 4:7-12.

St. John teaches us the shape of love, which cannot be disconnected from true doctrine. If we come with our own definition of love, we will always end up with a distortion of the truth. Instead, we must let God define what love is, because He is love. He makes love visible through His Son, Jesus. Love is found in the fact that God loved us by giving His Son to make the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Because God has loved us in this way, we love each other in response.

“The Love of God” is a series on Sharper Iron that goes through the three epistles written by St. John the Apostle and Evangelist. As St. John rejoiced to be the disciple loved by Jesus, so he writes his epistles to give us the same joy when we know that we are the beloved of God. God’s love for us in Jesus shapes our lives as Christians in all that we believe, say, and do.