Oakwood Church

“For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.”
1 John 3:11

Jesus has given us a new love with which we are to love one another.

“By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous.”
Hebrews 11:4

“And why did Cain murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous.”
1 John 3:12

Our problems with others result from our own problems with God.

An Old Problem

Jealousy sprouts from a lack of contentment in God.

An Old Problem

Anger sprouts from a lack of peace with God.

“We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers.”
1 John 3:14

A New Love

Our spiritual birth brings a new love for others.

“God is love.”
1 John 4:8

“God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
Romans 5:8

A New Humility

We put others before ourselves.

“By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.”
1 John 3:16

“If you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”
Luke 22:42

“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”
Philippians 2:3

A New Sacrifice

We serve the needs of others at the expense of our own.

“But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?”
1 John 3:17

“And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.”
Acts 2:44

“They had favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”
Acts 2:47

“Let your money sweat in your hands until you know to whom you should give it.”

“Share everything with your brother, and do not say it is your own; for if you are sharers in the imperishable, how much more the perishable things?”
~ the Didache (AD 100)

“They love one another, esteem widows, and rescue orphans from any who ill-treat them. Whoever has [wealth] gives to him who has not, without boasting. When they see a stranger, they take him into their homes and rejoice over him as a very brother.”
~ (AD 125)

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
~ Jim Elliot

“Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth.”
1 John 3:18

“God demonstrated His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 5:8

“God so loved the world that He GAVE His only Son…”
John 3:16

Recurring Temptation

Our failure to love others tempts us to believe God’s love may fail us.

“By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.”
1 John 3:19-20

“One thing [he] does: [he] forgets what lies behind and strains forward to what lies ahead.”
Philippians 3:13

If a Christian has a lingering regret or guilty conscience, he doesn’t have an emotional problem; he has a theology problem.

Fight feelings of guilt with the Truth of God’s Word.