How to Know You’re Loved

As we jump back into the Real Thing collection going through 1 John, Ben Stuart teaches us what John has to say about people who know and believe that God loves them.

You can say a thousand times, “I know, I know, I know,” when referencing what the Word of God has told you to do regarding living, but your actions betray what you really believe. John used the word “love” 46 times in 1 John alone. His message is that God loves you. We can shrug it off, but John gives us two attributes of those who know and believe they are loved by God.

The first attribute is fearlessness. We see it in 1 John 4:18. We are stable and confident in a hyped-up world. Knowing you’re loved gives you courage.

The second attribute is that—because we are fearless—we are free to love others. It’s given as a command in 1 John 4:7. John offers no reward if we do and no threat if we don’t; we love because love is from God. Love embraced becomes love extended. Those who know and believe they are loved by God aren’t filled with self-absorption when they walk into a room, so they are free to love you without worrying about what you think of them. You have to have a source to be a source.

The world is in need of selfless and fearless love. How do we feel loved? The fire of love burns on the fuel of truth. Your subjective emotions are fueled by an objective truth. If you want to feel loved, you need to know that you are.

What does love look like?

Love initiates. Love moves toward the beloved.

Love sacrifices. Love gives itself for the beloved.

Love stays. Love remains no matter what for the beloved.

How do you know you’re loved?

God initiated. 1 John 4:9 says His love was made manifest, or shown, to us by the sending of His only Son, Jesus. God sent Jesus so we would live through Him.

Jesus sacrificed. In 1 John 4:10, we find out that Jesus overcame two boundaries to get to us. The first was our indifference. He came for us while we were blowing Him off and dismissing Him. The second was becoming the propitiation, or atoning sacrifice for our sins. Our greatest problem is God’s wrath against sin. His wrath has to be satisfied. In the Old Testament, an innocent lamb was sacrificed to atone and pay for our sins. What is pictured in the Old Testament is proclaimed in the New Testament: Jesus would be the propitiation for our sins. We know something is wrong with us, and we can’t fix it…we need Jesus. Jesus gave up everything to pay our debt so we could come home.

The Holy Spirit stays. 1 John 4:13 says Jesus has given us His Spirit. Jesus said the best part about Him going away is that He would put His Spirit in us to be with us always, at every moment. He abides with us; He stays right with us.

The triune God has done all that God can do to declare to you that you are loved. One of the greatest battles you’ll fight is to believe it. For Satan, it's the lie that launches a million other lies. He started it in Genesis 3. But we know better. We know Jesus has overcome and invites us to have life in Him.

You are loved by God, so love fearlessly and selflessly because you have a source that has shown you the way and will never run out.