For Kids · 3 min with a grown-up
John keeps writing his letter to help God's family love God and each other.
This part holds the biggest, warmest truth in the whole letter: God is love.
Today's Story
John had one big thing he wanted everyone to remember. So he wrote it as plain as he could.
“Dear friends, let us love one another,” he said. “Love comes from God.”
Then he wrote three of the most beautiful words in the whole Bible. God is love.
Not just that God has love, or that God does loving things. God is love. It is who He is, all the way through, like sweetness is what honey is.
And here is how we know. God did not wait for us to love Him first. He loved us first! He sent His Son, Jesus, to bring us close to Him. That is how big and how early His love is.
So now we have a question to think about. Where does our love come from? It comes from Him. “We love,” John wrote, “because He first loved us.”
It is like His love is a warm fire, and our love is the heat we pass on to others. We never run out, because He keeps the fire going.
A Big Word
Memory Verse
Talk About It
- Who loved you before you could even say their name — who was there caring for you when you were a tiny baby?
- The Bible says God loved us first, before we ever loved Him. Why do you think that is such good news?
- If God's love is like a warm fire we pass on, who could you share some warmth with today?