For an explanation of this layout and the key to the books referenced, read here.
God’s Love and Ours, 4:7-15 NIV
v. 7, Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
(Bible Knowl Comm NT) “4:7-8. … the subject of love …, like faith in God’s Son (v. 13), is a product of the Spirit. As a confession of he incarnate person of Christ marks one off as being actuated by God (i.e. ‘from God’, vv. 5, 6) so does love, since love comes from. God. Hence, one who loves … has been born of God … and he knows God.”
(Vincent’s II) “Of God. Flows from God.”
(Life) “4:7ff . … God is the source of our love … Jesus is our example of what it means to love … The Holy Spirit gives us the power to love. … How well do you display your love for God in the choices you make and the actions you take?” (ESV) “Love is presented here as a consequence of, not a precondition for, being born of God.”
v. 8, Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
(Bible Knowl Comm NT) “4:7-8. … The absence of love is evidence that a person does not know God. Significantly, John did not say such a person is not born of God.”
(Vincent’s II) “Is love. … Spirit and light are expressions of God’s essential nature. Love is the expression of His personality corresponding to His nature. … Truth and love stand related to each other. Loving is the condition of knowing.”
(ESV) “The person who lacks love shows himself to be unchanged at the core of his being by the gospel message. … ‘God is love’ means that God continually gives of himself to others and seeks their benefit.”
(Recovery) “When the divine love appears to us, it becomes grace, and when the divine light shines upon us, it become truth.” Grace and truth were seen in Jesus (John 1).
v. 9, This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
(Bible Knowl Comm NT) “4:9-11. If one wishes to know how God ha demonstrated His love, he need only look at the fact that God sent His One and only Son into the world that we might obtain eternal life.”
(Vincent’s II) “Toward us. … Not ‘among us,’ but … in our case.”
(ESV) “God’s love is not an abstract principle or sentiment but was made manifest in the sending of his only Son.”
(Recovery) The Son saves us “from our death by His life.”
v. 10, This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
(Bible Knowl Comm NT) “…this love was not a response to man’s love, but an initiative on God’s part. … Nothing less than God’s love in Christ is the model for the love Christian should have toward one another.”
(Vincent’s II) “The propitiation. … to appease, to conciliate to one’s self. … the means of appeasing.”
(ESV) “God’s love sets the standard for the love Christians are called to embody.”
FIRST JOHN 4 MEDITATION vv. 7-10.
Love is theology perfected. Theology, its doctrines properly learned, points us to know God and results in us loving God and our neighbor with God’s love. Here is the benchmark for our learning: No love equals no learning.
We don’t live out God’s love only by imitating the exemplary lives of other people. We want God’s love lived through us, not rote learned responses. Grafted-on behaviors are not good enough for disciples. When His love is lived out, it comes from our core in response to God; it is authentic, or genuine. It comes from God revealing Himself to us through His Word when the Spirit enlightens God’s character to us as we pursue Him.
Our lack of zeal for the Word equates to our lack of zeal or pursuit to know God. Our prayer times also reflect our fellowship with God, whether of much or little. God speaks to us through the Word and faith is born (Rom. 10:17). That faith is a component of knowing Him and expresses itself in confidence in the decisions we make based on His self-revelation. We have only to re-read Hebrews 11 to see the effect on people to whom God revealed Himself. Their lives were transformed by seeing Him who is invisible. We are transformed into His image as the Spirit reveals Him (2 Cor. 3:18), and bear the image of His love as a result.
God’s love was not merely metaphysical or otherworldly, but demonstrated by an action in time and place that cost Him dearly—He gave us His only-begotten Son for us. His love will shape our own. Missionaries and other disciples will agree that following God out of love has cost them much and resulted in steps of great risk, but God’s grace, or love, carried them through.
Their love did not come about through spending huge amounts of time poring over dusty scrolls or pondering the secrets of bound, weather-beaten volumes, but from following through on God’s revelation of Himself in Scripture, following through in faith and obedience, which is exactly how Christ demonstrated His love to the Father, even to death. This is not about mysticism but responding to the Scriptures. As an example practice, meditate deeply on Philippians 2:1-11, asking the Lord to reveal His glory. Ask the Spirit to reveal your own heart and lead you. Can you continue in making selfish decisions as a result of God’s disclosure of His selfless love for you? And so we do this page by page, chapter by chapter, as we work our way through the New Testament book by book, day by day, acknowledging Him as Lord over every page and every lesson. Disciples just want to see Jesus. What are you looking for?
