The Beliefs of John Robert Stevens

John Robert Stevens could not separate love from faith. I John 4:16 says “We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us….” From this Scripture, Stevens taught that Christians must both receive and believe the love of God. It is the belief in God’s love that requires faith. “Unless you believe that you are loved, the whole process falls apart.”¹ We love because He first loved us (I John 4:19). Stevens also applied this principle to interpersonal relationships, explaining that God often expresses His love through other believers.

Stevens explained the importance of love by pointing out that the very motivation behind Christ’s sacrifice was love. John 3:16 tells us that the Father sent us His Son, Jesus Christ, to be our sacrifice because He loves us. We are saved as a result of that love. Just as the motivation of Christ’s ministry was love, so should all of Christ’s ministers be motivated in the same way. As the Scripture states, we are to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15). The Scripture also states that God is love (I John 4:8). This is how foundational the principle of love actually is.

…when God loves, He distributes Himself in His emotions, so that anyone who opens up to the love of God literally receives God. And if you say, “I have received God,” and you do not love, you are a liar (I John 4:20), because God projects Himself in His love. He cannot divorce Himself from His feelings, from His great plan, from His purpose, or from His Word. When God says, “I love you,” that means He is filling those words He speaks to your heart with Himself. ²

Stevens taught that love was a fundamental necessity for every believer to receive, to know, and to express. He was committed to this principle himself, and was an expression of Christ’s love to those around him.

The term love appears 10,887 times in Stevens’ written materials.