The passage from the 1st Epistle of John is believed to have been written by the apostle John.
They offer important lessons about love, which is the “cure for evil,” Illinois Pastor James Ward said this week on Fox News Digital.
Mr. Ward is the pastor of INSIGHT Church near Chicago and the author of the book “Victim Zero: Overcoming Injustice with a New Attitude.”
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Christian website Bible Gateway said the purpose of John’s message was to “combat certain false beliefs, especially regarding Jesus, and to deepen the spiritual and social awareness of the Christian community.”
Ward shared his thoughts on three relevant Bible passages.
Pastor James Ward of INSIGHT Church reflects on three passages from the first epistle of John and what “God is love” really means. (iStock/Charan Ingram)
These three are from the first epistle of John.
- “Beloved, if God so loved us, we must also love one another” (1 John 4:11).
- “And we have seen and testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14).
- “God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:16).
“Evil is real,” Ward told FOX News Digital.
“Whether you consider yourself religious or non-religious, the reports of violence we hear every day are discouraging to all of us,” Pastor Ward said. “That’s because evil is not a religious problem, but a human problem.”
“The Bible clearly explains the origin and nature of evil and the cure for evil: love.”
Evil has the power to unite and divide people, Ward said. “While we can easily come together about the existence of evil, we remain divided about how to respond to it,” Ward said.
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“I believe the time has come to call Americans back to their personal responsibility to love and to call their attention back to God’s Word,” he said. “The Bible clearly explains the origin and nature of evil and the cure for evil: love.”
The scripture in 1 John says, “Three actions we can all take to stop the forces of evil and allow God to work through us to show His love. It’s clear,” he said.
James Ward and his wife Sharon Ward are pastors and co-pastors of INSIGHT Church in Illinois. “I want people to love America again,” James Ward told Fox News Digital. (Charan Ingram)
‘I believe in love’
The first thing, he says, is to “believe in love.”
“Right before a plane takes off, flight attendants advise passengers to first secure an oxygen mask before helping others in an emergency,” Ward said.
Similarly, he said, a person “must first know that God is love and believe in the love that God has for him.”
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Only when one believes in the love that God has for someone can one share that love with others.
‘Beloved’
The next one is a reminder to “be loved,” Ward said.
“It is not enough to know that God is love and believe in God’s love; we must receive God’s love personally and allow ourselves to be loved by God,” he said. Ta.
God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, “to die for our sins and to forever defeat evil as a proof of God’s love for us,” Ward said. In other words, there is no one who is not loved. (SWNS)
According to Ward, evil has the power to make people feel “unlovable and unworthy of love.”
“We often struggle with obtaining God’s forgiveness and forgiving ourselves,” he said.
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Ward said it’s important to remember that God sent His Son, Jesus, into the world “to die for our sins and to defeat evil forever as a proof of God’s love for us.” Ta.
“Let’s be lovers”
Ward said the third memory from these verses is “becoming a lover.”
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“When we believe in God’s love and allow ourselves to be loved by God, we are fully equipped to love others,” he said.
“There is so little love in the world today because so many people do not believe in and receive God’s love for themselves.”
“Love,” he says, can be defined as “total giving.”
“But you can’t give what you don’t have. I think there’s so little love in the world today because so many people don’t believe and receive God’s love for themselves.”
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Because there is so much evil in the world right now, “I call on the American people to do our part,” Ward told FOX News Digital.
“Let’s make America love again,” he said.
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