We Love Because He First Loved Us
Month 10: Loving One Another · Heart Matters
Today's Scripture
Read together: 1 John 4:19 & 1 John 3:16
19 We love because He first loved us. — 1 John 4:19
16 By this we know what love is: Jesus laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. — 1 John 3:16
Memory Verse
“A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also must love one another.”— John 13:34 (BSB)
📖 Bible-in-a-Year (optional)
Today's reading: Luke 1
Reading the whole Bible in a year — do this when you have extra time.The Heart of It
Here's one of the shortest and most important sentences in the Bible. "We love because He first loved us" (). Notice the order. It never changes. His love comes first. Ours is the echo. This matters for our hearts, because a lot of us secretly believe we have to be loving enough to deserve God's love. The Bible turns that completely around. We don't love in order to get loved. We love because we already are loved. Love isn't the entrance fee. It's the overflow.
That's why "love one another" is never meant to feel like squeezing water from a dry sponge. When our hearts are dry and grumpy, the answer isn't to grit our teeth and try harder. The answer is to go back to the well. We remember how loved we are. "By this we know what love is: Jesus laid down His life for us" (). When you really know you're loved like that, love starts to leak out of you. It flows toward your brother, your sister, your mom and dad. So the most important heart-question in our home isn't "Am I being loving enough?" It's "Have I let how much Jesus loves me sink in today?" Full hearts spill over. Empty ones can't.
Around the Table
We can love others because Jesus loved us first! His love fills us up like a cup.
Let's do it: Pretend to fill a cup, then "pour" pretend love onto someone with a hug.
When we feel grumpy and don't want to be kind, the fix is to remember how much Jesus loves us.
Let's talk: What helps you remember you're loved when you're having a hard day?
Love is the overflow of being loved, not the price for it. We go back to Jesus' love before we try to give it away.
Let's go deeper: Think of someone who's hard to love. How might remembering God's love for you change how you treat them?
💬 Conversation Starter
When your "love tank" feels empty, what fills it back up? And what drains it the fastest?
🛡️ Defending the Faith
How do we know the Bible's view of love is right and not just one opinion among many? Real love is self-giving. It costs the giver something for the good of another (). Every culture in history has known that the highest love gives itself up. That's not a human invention. It's a fingerprint of the God who is love ().
For Dad · Go Deeper
The order is "He first loved us." That order is the engine of all true obedience. And it's easy for a busy dad to flip it without noticing. We start treating performance as the path to acceptance, both for ourselves and for our kids. Then the home slowly runs on pressure instead of grace. Watch your own heart this week. Are you serving your family from a full cup or a guilty one? Children are quick to soak up the gospel they actually see. It's either "be good and you'll be loved" or "you're loved, so let's grow." Preach the real order to yourself first thing each morning. You'll find it reshapes the tone of your whole household by evening.
Draws on: Paul Tripp, Parenting: 14 Gospel Principles.
Let's Pray Together
"Father, thank You that You loved us first, before we ever loved You. Fill our hearts so full of Your love that it spills over onto each other. When we feel empty, draw us back to the cross. In Jesus' name, amen."
Full hearts spill over. So I go to Jesus' love before I try to give it away.