TLIC FAMILY. DAY 347. DECEMBER 13: OUGHT TO LOVE.

THINK TOGETHER

Has anyone told you what you ought to do lately? What was it?

READ TOGETHER

Love is the most important thing that God gives to us. Imagine how terrible life would be without love. Love makes life good. Read this part of John’s letter and see if you can list some of the things he tells us about love:

1 John 4:7-12. ⁷Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹In 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. ¹⁰In 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. ¹¹Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹²No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

What is John trying to teach us about love? First, John wants us to know that God is love (verse 8). God doesn’t only have love or choose to love sometimes. God IS love. Second, God shared his love with us through his Son, Jesus (verse 9). God loved us so much that he sent Jesus to save us through his death for us on the cross. Third, God loves us so much that he decided to live (abide) in our hearts (verse 12). You’d have to really love a person to move into their house. But that’s how much God loves us. He wants to live with us forever and he wants to change us into the same kind of loving person that he is.

That’s why John tells us that we OUGHT to love. Because that’s what we were made to do. Birds ought to fly. Fish ought to swim. Christians ought to love. Why? Because with Jesus inside of us, loving is what we were made to do. Being nice is natural. Kindness is our life. We ought to do what we are, and we are like Jesus!

Because of Jesus we are loved by God.

With Jesus we can (and ought) to love others.

DO SOMETHING TOGETHER

On YouTube search for this video: God is Love Bible Story LifeKids and watch it together.

PRAY TOGETHER

Jesus, you always love me perfectly even when I don’t love perfectly. Help me to love like you a little bit more every day. Amen.