Love Defined | Week 2

The big idea

Real love lives in the light.

Real love is not warm feelings or religious performance, it is found only in Jesus, who is life itself. When we live in real fellowship with God and others, and live honestly instead of hiding, His light heals us and gives us the joy He died to give us.

Point 1 of 3

Bill opens 1 John 1:1-2 to show John correcting false teachers who denied Jesus was truly a person. John insists Jesus is not a resource we use to get what we really want but life itself, so the question is not just do you believe in Jesus but do you believe Him enough to trust Him with the thing you are holding onto instead of Him.

Point 2 of 3

From 1 John 1:3-4 Bill shows fellowship (koinonia) is both vertical with God and horizontal with other believers, comparing it to the Fellowship of the Ring where people who don't even like each other choose to love, sacrifice, and stay on mission together. He argues joy, not mere happiness, is found on the other side of that real, honest community rather than in hiding.

Point 3 of 3

Working through 1 John 1:8-10, Bill explains that claiming to have no sin makes us liars and makes God a liar, but confession simply means agreeing with God about what sin actually is rather than downplaying it as not that bad or something we can handle. He walks through what confession looks like practically, using David's affair with Bathsheba and murder of Uriah in Psalm 32 as the picture of a man forgiven not because he was perfect but because he kept coming back to confession and repentance.