The Love of God (1 John 4:7-12)

John is concerned about the unity, the recovery from schism, and the ongoing progress of the churches to which he is writing. In the previous section, he stated the importance of every church, both corporately and its individual members, testing the various messages they heard from the range of teachers that came their way. While such testing should not be merely cerebral, there was always that danger, which is one reason why John moves on to consider the importance of loving one another. We should not forget that the church in Ephesus, to which John probably was writing at this time, did test the spirits but also lost their first love (Rev. 2:1-7). A Christian church is on its way to extinction if it is not marked by love.

Love defined (vv. 7-8)

In verses seven and eight John states the importance and necessity of love and why it will always be the defining element of authentic Christianity. He reminds his readers of the origin or source of love – God. Therefore, love in the hearts of believers as the consequence of the reaching out of God’s love to them. His love is an initiating love – we love him because he first loved us. This love is more than initiating, however – it is also infinite because God is limitless in all his attributes and capabilities, including his love.

Further, this love of God is an internal love from within his own being. God is three internal persons, a mystery to be adored and admired. They have existed in a loving relationship from all eternity. This love had no beginning and cannot improve because it is always perfect. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit love one another. Of course, once we realise who they are, we are not surprised that they love one another. Each of them is beyond total description by us in beauty and loveliness.

Yet there is another dimension to the internal love of God, which is that it also went out from the three persons to their creatures. This aspect of their love also is eternal. Nevertheless, it is a surprising love because the objects of it were unworthy, ugly because of their sin. We shall consider later how God revealed his love for sinners, but meanwhile we should pause and marvel at this great fact that before stars shone in the night sky God loved sinners.

Thirdly, in addition to being initiatory and internal, God’s love is also intimate. Those who experience it come to know him. His love is not a distant kind, merely contemplating the objects of it. Rather his love is involved with the objects of it, and he reveals his love to them by unfolding in their minds and hearts the wonders of his grace. Through the immediate work of the Holy Spirit, the various means by which the triune God loves sinners are conveyed to them by the Bible and appropriate use of it (such as preaching, meditation, and singing). The inevitable outcome is that those whose hearts he touches love him and imitate him by loving those he loves.

This means that God’s love is indicative of those who are true Christians. Sometimes the question is asked, how can we tell true Christians from those who are false? Here we have a clear method of doing so. Love towards God and his people and to our fellowmen is an authentic evidence of new life. Without love, there is no evidence of conversion. This is what Paul reminds us off in 1 Corinthians 13 where he makes it very clear that doctrinal knowledge (know all mysteries), religious devotion (give my body to be burned), great faith and self-sacrifice are not in themselves evidences of true love. Instead ‘Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on his own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things’ (1 Cor. 13:4-7).

Love displayed (vv. 9-10)

Since God’s love is the highest love possible we need to look to him and see how his love is revealed. All God does, he does out of love, initially love for his own glory, which includes love for his people. Since all he does flows from love, then his work in the natural world of creation expresses love towards his creatures as he reveals through his actions his love for sinners. For example, out of his love he provides food and clothing, out of his love he bestows natural talents and abilities, and out of his love he gives a measure of peace and safety. Great although that expression of divine love is, it is not the highest manifestation of it. Instead, the most wonderful display of God’s love took place at the cross and John refers to this in verses 9 and 10.

John reminds his readers that the heavenly Father sent his only Son into the world. Sometimes the impression is given that the loving Son through his actions on the cross changed the outlook of the Father who was determined to punish us. Such an idea is wrong. The truth is that the Father loves sinners as much as the Son does, and while we cannot explain what it means we can see that a great cost was paid by the Father as well as by the Son at the cross. We are familiar at present with the price paid by soldiers and others in a war. We admire their sacrifices, but often we forget the price their parents and spouses pay for the soldiers’ involvement. In a far higher sense, the heavenly Father sent his Son into the war zone of Calvary. But why did he send him there?

John gives the answer to this question as well – the Father sent the Son so that ‘we might live through him’. This is a reminder that we were spiritually dead, that we needed spiritual life. We were dead in sins, alienated from the life of God. Further, Jesus came to give eternal life – those who believe in him not only have spiritual life now, they also have the assured promise of resurrection and glory ahead when they will experience life in its fullness. What is life? True life involves our thinking, our affections and our interaction with others. Jesus gives us great thoughts, he stimulates our affections of love, joy and peace, and enables sweet interaction with those believers we love and who love us. In this world we have foretastes of this quality of life, but heaven will reveal it in its fullness.

In verse 10 John defines love and we should note what he says. First, it does not ignore the love of Christians. Instead he reminds us that the love of Christians is not the highest expression of real love. Love has cost many Christians a great deal – we can think of the countless number of martyrs and also the sacrifices made in other ways by Christians. The costliest of those sacrifices is not the highest expression of love. Nor is the combined total of all the ways Christians have expressed their love for God and one another. If we could put together all the love that there has been, all the ways that true love has been shown, we still would not have the highest expression of love. One reason for that is obvious – a Christian may come along and perform greater expressions of love than has been shown in the past by Christians. What we need to see is a display of love that cannot be bettered in the future, and when we go to Calvary we see such a display.

The loving Father sent his dear Son to the cross in order that he would endure the Father’s wrath against our sins. The price was high for the Father, but he lovingly paid it. An earthly father may be forced to send his son on a dangerous mission, but the earthly parent can hope that his son may avoid the dangers. The heavenly Father knew all the dangers of the cross and he also knew his Son could not avoid them. Yet out of love for us he paid the price of love and gave his Son to suffer this unbearable burden. Every stroke of wrath that the Son endured at the Father’s hand cries out to us that the Father loves us greatly.

Of course, we know that the Son took it all lovingly. He loved the hand that smote him and he loved the sinners whose judgement he was bearing. Yet the emphasis here is on the love of the Father and we should focus on it and see how great is the love of God. We need to focus on it because the Father’s actions in giving his Son to such an awful experience has enormous implications for us, which John mentions and verses 11 and 12: ‘Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.’

Love developed (vv. 11-12)

The marvellous display of God’s love is not only to be admired. In addition, it has obligations, and John specifies the obvious obligation when he says that each believer ought to love all those for whom God showed his love when he sent his Son to die on the cross. It is inconceivable that a believer could dislike or hate a person for whom his Saviour died (it is true that we should disapprove of wrong actions such may perform, but we cannot let such disapproval descend into dislike for the person himself).

John will go on in his letter to describe some ways in which believers will show brotherly love. Here, briefly, we can mention some practices that contribute to brotherly love. First, there will be mutual, definite prayer for and with one another. Second, we will speak to one another about the things of the kingdom of God, about the beauty of Christ, about the wonder of forgiveness, and about the prospect of heaven. Third, we will warn and encourage one another as we make our way through a sinful, dangerous world in which our spiritual enemies are attacking us. Fourth, there will be practical expressions of brotherly concern. This is how Christian love develops.

Love is not a hobby. When I was younger, Saturday was the day I spent on my hobbies. On some occasions I would have to do something else and I was not able to participate in my hobbies. Of course, as far as life was concerned, that failure did not matter very much. I sometimes think Christians treat the spiritual life like a hobby – they will give time to it if they can spare it. Yet the spiritual life should be the priority of every Christian because the fact of the matter is this – we are either growing in grace or we are going back. Another word for the spiritual life is love, and the four practices I mentioned earlier can be done at any time and in any place. But they should not be a hobby.

What is the outcome of such living? John tells us that we shall know the presence of the invisible God. Pagans could see their gods in temples, but they could not take the presence of these gods with them because such idols did not have a real existence. No matter how ardent the pagans were, their worship was futile. How different with believers! Living together in love means that we also live together with God. They, in a sense, become the place where God feels at home. What an amazing privilege! What amazing pleasure can be ours when we live in love!