What Is Real Love? A Guide to 1 JohnSample

A Disciple’s Guide to 1 John

When you first embarked on this journey, you did so with a clear goal in mind: to grow as a disciple of Jesus. With John as our guide, we scoured the pages of his letter to discover just how much God loves us, and what it means for us to live as people shaped and moved by His love. Because we have committed ourselves to this wonderful thing we call discipleship.

Discipleship is the process of becoming like Jesus for the sake of others.

Discipleship is a process. It doesn’t happen all at once or over night. It happens little by little, decision by decision, and moment by moment.

Discipleship is about becoming like Jesus. Every choice either forms us into the image of Jesus or deforms us into the image of the devil. As followers of Jesus, we are training ourselves to become the kind of person who goes where Jesus goes, does what Jesus does, trusts what Jesus says, and loves how Jesus loves. Because we belong to Him, we are becoming like Him.

Discipleship is for the sake of others. We don’t do this just to make ourselves feel better. We do it because we want people to know the radical love of God that has the power to change everything. We do it because we have experienced the joy that comes from being a part of God’s family, and we want others to share in that joy.

We hope this journey has been fruitful for you and that your understanding and appreciation of 1 John, and even more importantly, the love of God, has grown because of it.

Our prayer for you is that you would continue to grow up in the love of God and that your transformation into a person of love would spill over into the people that God places in your path.

Application: Close out this journey by once again reading John’s letter, from beginning to end, as one final lap around this majestic exploration of God’s love and our role as members of His family.

Then, come up with a plan to keep growing as a disciple.

If you’re interested in learning more about spiritual disciplines and how to make the habits of Jesus your habits, then check out the Becoming Like Jesus collection.

If you want to better understand the overarching story of what God has done, what He is doing, and what He will do because of Jesus, then consider the Fully Devoted Discipleship Study.

The rest of our reading Plans can be found here: Choose your next Switch Bible Plan.