{"id":3220,"date":"2026-01-16T00:24:50","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T00:24:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stevehusting.com\/alivetogod\/?p=3220"},"modified":"2025-12-24T00:42:47","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T00:42:47","slug":"meditations-on-1-john-47-10-with-notes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevehusting.com\/alivetogod\/meditations-on-1-john-47-10-with-notes\/","title":{"rendered":"Meditations on 1 John 4:7-10, with Notes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For an explanation of this layout and the key to the books referenced, read here.<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

God\u2019s Love and Ours<\/strong>, 4:7-15<\/strong> NIV<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

v. 7,<\/strong> Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Bible Knowl Comm NT) \u201c4:7-8.<\/strong> … the subject of love<\/strong> …, like faith in God\u2019s 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. \u2018from God\u2019, vv. 5, 6) so does love, since love comes from. God. Hence, one who loves<\/strong> … has been born of God<\/strong> … and<\/strong> he knows God.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Vincent\u2019s II) \u201cOf God.<\/strong> Flows from God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Life) \u201c4:7ff <\/strong>. … 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?\u201d (ESV) \u201cLove is presented here as a consequence of, not a precondition for, being born of God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

v. 8,<\/strong> Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Bible Knowl Comm NT) \u201c4:7-8.<\/strong> … The absence of love is evidence that a person does not know God.<\/strong> Significantly, John did not say such a person is not born of God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Vincent\u2019s II) \u201cIs love.<\/strong> … Spirit<\/em> and light<\/em> are expressions of God\u2019s essential nature.<\/em> Love<\/em> is the expression of His personality<\/em> corresponding to His nature. … Truth and love stand related to each other. Loving is the condition of knowing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(ESV) \u201cThe person who lacks love shows himself to be unchanged at the core of his being by the gospel message. … \u2018God is love\u2019 means that God continually gives of himself to others and seeks their benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Recovery) \u201cWhen the divine love appears to us, it becomes grace, and when the divine light shines upon us, it become truth.\u201d Grace and truth were seen in Jesus (John 1).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Bible Knowl Comm NT) \u201c4:9-11.<\/strong> If one wishes to know how God ha demonstrated His love<\/strong>, he need only look at the fact that God sent His One and only Son into the world that we might<\/strong> obtain eternal life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Vincent\u2019s II) \u201cToward us.<\/strong> … Not \u2018among us,<\/em>\u2019 but … in our case.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(ESV) \u201cGod\u2019s love is not an abstract principle or sentiment but was made manifest<\/strong> in the sending of his only Son<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Recovery) The Son saves us \u201cfrom our death by His life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

v. 10,<\/strong> This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Bible Knowl Comm NT) \u201c…this love<\/strong> was not a response to man\u2019s love<\/strong>, but an initiative on God\u2019s part. … Nothing less than God\u2019s love in Christ is the model for the love<\/strong> Christian should have toward one another<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Vincent\u2019s II) \u201cThe propitiation.<\/strong> … to appease, to conciliate to one\u2019s self.<\/em> … the means of appeasing<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(ESV) \u201cGod\u2019s love sets the standard for the love Christians are called to embody.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FIRST JOHN 4 MEDITATION vv. 7-10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s love. Here is the benchmark for our learning: No love equals no learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We don\u2019t live out God\u2019s love only by imitating the exemplary lives of other people. We want God\u2019s 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\u2019s character to us as we pursue Him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our lack of zeal for the Word equates to our lack of zeal or pursuit to know God. <\/em>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God\u2019s love was not merely metaphysical or otherworldly, but demonstrated by an action in time and place that cost Him dearly\u2014He 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\u2019s grace, or love, carried them through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s 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\u2019s 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?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For an explanation of this layout and the key to the books referenced, read here. God\u2019s 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 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[593],"tags":[591],"class_list":["post-3220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1-john-with-notes","tag-meditations-on-1-john"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevehusting.com\/alivetogod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevehusting.com\/alivetogod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevehusting.com\/alivetogod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevehusting.com\/alivetogod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevehusting.com\/alivetogod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3220"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevehusting.com\/alivetogod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3222,"href":"https:\/\/stevehusting.com\/alivetogod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3220\/revisions\/3222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevehusting.com\/alivetogod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevehusting.com\/alivetogod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevehusting.com\/alivetogod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}