Lesson 44: “God Is Love” – Scriptures and Quotes

3 John 1:9-10

Reading 1 – 1 John 4:8,16

Reading 2 – 1 John 3:1-2

Reading 3 – Moroni 7:48

Reading 4 – Romans 8:14-17

Mosiah 5:5-9

Moses 1:39

Reading 5 – 1 John 4:19

Reading 6 - Elder Neal A. Maxwell wrote:  "Just as the love of God for us is unconditional, one day ours for Him will be likewise. This is what the first commandment is all about. But even then, the adoration and awe we have developed for God will take humble and eternal notice of the vital fact stressed by John—that God loved us first. (1 John 4:19.) Indeed, while God's great plan of redemption was made feasible by His omniscience and His omnipotence, it was made inevitable because of His perfect love for us!"  (All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience, p128)

Reading 7 – 1 John 3:16

Reading 8 – 1 John 1:7-9

1 John 5:11-13

2 Nephi 9:11-13

Reading 9 – 1 John 2:1-2

Doctrine and Covenants 45:3-5

Reading 10 - Paul and John both spoke of Jesus as being “the propitiation” for our sins (see 1 John 2:2; 4:10; Romans 3:25). The Greek word hilasterion, translated “propitiation,” was also used to translate the Hebrew kapporeth (“seat of atonement”) in the Greek Old Testament. One scholar discussed the significance of the word hilasterion:

“All Greek nouns which end in -erion mean the place where something is done. Dikasterion means the place where dike, justice is done, and therefore a law court. Thusiasterion means the place where thusia, sacrifice is done, and therefore the altar. Therefore hilasterion can certainly mean the place where hilasmos, expiation, is done and made. Because of that, both in the Old and New Testament, hilasterion has a regular and a technical meaning. It always means the lid of gold above the ark which was known as the mercy-seat. In Exodus 25:17 it is laid down of the furnishings of the tabernacle: ‘Thou shalt make a mercy-seat (hilasterion) of pure gold.’ In only one other place in the New Testament is the word used, in Hebrews 9:5, and there the writer speaks of the cherubim who overshadow the mercy-seat. The word is used in that sense more than twenty times in the Greek Old Testament. …

“If then we take hilasterion to mean the mercy-seat, and, if we call Jesus our hilasterion in that sense, it will mean, so to speak, that Jesus is the place where man and God meet, and that specially He is the place where man’s sin meets with the atoning love of God.” (Barclay, The Mind of St. Paul, pp. 87–88.) (Quoted in Old Testament Student Manual Genesis-2 Samuel, (1980) in the chapter entitled “Exodus 25–30; 35–40: The House of the Lord in the Wilderness)

John 14:15

Reading 11 – 1 John 2:3-6

Reading 12 – 1 John 4:7-8,11

Reading 13 – 1 John 4:20

President Thomas S. Monson said: “Our Heavenly Father’s plan contains the ultimate expressions of true love. All that we hold dear—even our families, our friends, our joy, our knowledge, our testimonies—would vanish were it not for our Father and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. … The world has witnessed no greater gift, nor has it known more lasting love” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1993, 77; or Ensign, May 1993, 62–63).