1 John 4:7–21 | The Assurance of God through the Love of God
Introduction
I’m excited to share God’s Word as we look into I John, Chapter 4.
Within the last few weeks, Ryan and Jack brought us back into our I John series. Over these past several months, we’ve been going through I John and expounding on John’s letter to Christians regarding our walk with God and how we practice the truths of our identity in Christ. Today, we get to a very familiar passage in this book. My hope today is that we see three primary ideas within this passage:
I John 4:7-10a, God’s love initiates: Was made manifest, and is experiential
I John 4:10b-18, God’s love assures/perfects us
I John 4: 7, 19-21, God’s love compels us: 2 Cor. 5:14-21
God’s Love Initiates
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.”
I John 4:7
From the beginning of this section, John starts with the word beloved, which we could translate to those who are loved. Here we see John addressing believers in Christ, those who are loved.
His command is simple: you who have been loved, love one another. Why should we do that? Because love is from God. Not only does love originate with God, but last week Jack unpacked chapter three and reminded us that love is commanded by God and is a defineable quality of those who are followers of God.
Someone may misread verse seven and surmise, “If I love, then I know God.” I love my family and friends; I love my wife; I love the great outdoors and bluegrass music. Do these loves mean I know God and love God? A friend once told me, “I don’t attend church–nature is my church. That is where I experience God.”
This has become a popular assumption within society today, as if love of something (other than God) establishes peace and security within life. Popular songs like, All You Need is Love, or phrases such as “love is love” and “too great for hate” have become the chorus of society today, presenting a type of moral dogma that guides and determines how our society functions.
What then is John saying? The love that John talks about here is a unique type of love—this is agape I love. Agape love is self-sacrificing love, it is self-giving love and expects no repayment. Where do we see that form of love originate? From God alone.
Romans 5:8 reminds us, “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” While we were still enemies of the cross of Christ, Christ laid down His life for us to reconcile us to God (Romans 5:8-10). This is how we see God’s love initiated, or set into action. Agape love is shown in Christ’s death on the cross.
John tells us that those who are capable of this form of love have been “born of God”—a rebirth, from a former way of life in sin and separation from God into a new life in Christ. What does Jesus tell Nichodemus in John 3? “Ye must be born again.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us that we are a new creation—the old has gone, the new has come.
In the same way that being born, in a physical sense, requires an effort and initiation on our parent’s part, so also love cannot truly occur without God revealing himself and his character. John continues his argument by providing a negative or opposite example for us:
Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
I John 4:8
Let’s focus for a moment on the word “know.” The word for know that John uses here is ginosko, which means “knowledge by experience.”
My wife recently shared with me a study conducted on about 2,000 people. These people were divided into groups to determine if there was any correlation between visualizing something and an actual ability to perform that task. For instance, one group may have been shown how to do a backflip on a YouTube video, provided with step by step instructions. The other group of people had instructors physically present, offering guidance and feedback as they practiced doing a backflip.
Which of these two groups do you suppose “knows” how to do a backflip?
Perhaps the group that was shown the YouTube video “knows” how to do a backflip, however watching a video vs. executing a task are very different things. Until they experience the process of throwing their body up in the air and landing back down on their feet, they do not fully “know” how to do a backflip.
The surprising result from the study was that those who watched the YouTube video exhibited a greater degree of assumed confidence in saying, “I could do that, I could do a backflip,” than those who had instructors walking them through the steps. Isn’t that true within our everyday practices as well? I’ll watch something done on the T.V. (curling in the olympics, for example), or provide commentary and correctional instruction to the Georgia Bulldogs coaching staff on something I’ve never done before and say, “I could do that,” or “they shoulda done it this way,” without truly attempting it myself.
I do not know how to curl, or do a backflip, or coach a D1 collegiate football team, in the experiential sense. I believe this is a small example of exactly what John is talking about in this section, and what he addressed earlier in I John 3:18, “Let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”
John tells his readers in verses seven and eight that experiencing the love of God that He has initiated towards us generates agape love towards one another. It’s not simply seeing or knowing about God’s love, but truly experiencing God’s love in Christ, that allows us to extend love towards one another in deed and truth.
At the end of verse eight, John says, God is love. We’ll see that John uses this phrase again a few verses later (I John 4:16). Earlier in this letter, John refers to God as light (I John 1:5). In Hebrews, God is referred to as a “consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29).
God is addressed as many things in the Bible, so what does it mean that God is love? It's such a simple phrase, yet such a theologically deep statement. God’s love, an inseparable aspect of His nature, is the truest and purest form of love. As we stated earlier, love ultimately comes from God. He establishes what true love is. It is perfect, not self-seeking, not conditional. The eternal love that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit share between each other condensed into three words: God is love.
In John 17, Jesus speaks of this relationship between himself and the Father before the foundation of the world:
Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.
John 17: 24-26
How amazing and good is our God? That He would share this eternal love between He and the Son with humanity, with people like you and me? That’s exactly where John goes next:
In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.
I John 4:9
Christ reveals the love of God in Himself, in the most complete and costly form possible–self sacrifice on a cross. And for what? Verse 9 tells us, “so that we might live through Him,” and receive eternal life.
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20
Again, John reiterates the purposeful initiation of God:
In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
I John 4:10
We have no cause or room for boasting. We did not love God first. In fact, we rejected God and lived in sin. And for those of us who have received God’s love in faith, how often do we still today fail to love God fully?
There is good news for us today in this verse–Christ is our propitiation for sins. Propitiation (Gk. hilasmos): a sacrifice that bears God’s wrath and turns it to favor (Rom. 3:25). The connotation within this word implies more than expiation, which merely wipes away sin. Propitiation for sins restores relationship.
Spurgeon speaks on the magnitude regarding this act on God’s part: “If there was to be reconciliation between God and man, man ought to have sent to God; the offender ought to be the first to apply for forgiveness; the weaker should apply to the greater for help; the poor man should ask of him who distributes alms; but ‘Herein is love’ that God ‘sent.’ He was first to send an embassy of peace.”
- Charles H. Spurgeon
Christ’s atoning blood exchanges sin and death with righteousness. Listen to what the writer of Hebrews says regarding Christ’s propitiation:
But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
Hebrews 9:11-14
Here we see that Christ entered into the holy places by the merit of His own blood. I love that the writer of Hebrews adds the phrase, how much more. How much more will the blood of Christ purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. The exchange from “dead works,” things unpleasing to God, to “serve the living God,” things that are pleasing and honorable to God.
How do we serve the living God? John concludes this thought by stating:
If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
I John 4:11
God’s heart is for His people.
This is how we honor and serve the living God. Because of the great love with which He loved us, we ought to love one another. Now that we have a clean conscience and have been purified from sin, we can initiate the love of God to one another.
Dan DeHaan says in his book, The God You Can Know, we are “indebted to love.” He uses an illustration of a captain of a Mississippi riverboat. As the story goes, when the captain’s ship went by another vessel, the captain grabbed a man and said “Look, look over there at that captain.” The bystander wondered why he was so excited. He asked, “Why do you want me to look at that captain?” Then the captain told him the story of how he had collided in the middle of the night with another boat several years before. The vessel was lost, and in the process he was thrown overboard. About that time, the other captain they had seen came by and jumped in to save his life. He looked at the bystander and said, “Ever since then, I just love to point him out!” What a great picture of the Christian life - duty has vanished in light of the desire to “point him out.”
A final thought, again, from Charles Spurgeon: “This love will lead to practical action. Has anybody offended you? Seek reconciliation. ‘Oh, but I am the offended party.’ So was God, and he went straight away and sought reconciliation. Brother, do the same. ‘Oh, but I have been insulted.’ Just so: so was God: all the wrong was towards him, yet he sent. ‘Oh, but the party is so unworthy.’ So are you; but ‘God loved you and sent his Son.’ Go write according to that copy.”
God’s Love Perfects/Is Perfected in Us
This leads me to my second point today: God’s love perfects and is perfected in us:
No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us.
I John 4:12
Someone may read this and ask, “Is John suggesting that God’s love is not perfect?” Certainly we know that God’s love is holy, perfect, without fault or blemish—the Bible clearly reiterates this (Deuteronomy 32:4, Matthew 5:48).
This action of being “perfected” is not a failure on God’s end, but rather a development on our end and an unveiling of the depths of God’s love. This statement that John makes, “His love is perfected in us,” means that the unfathomable depths of God’s love comes to fuller maturation, is shown more completely, and reaches its intended goal. What is its intended goal? That we would love one another as God loves us.
Paul talks about this idea:
And He (Christ) gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
Ephesians 4:11-16
Not only is abiding in God’s love a sanctifying work that develops the individual, but also an edifying and testimonial representation for the building up of believers and to the world!
John spends the next several verses (13 -16) offering assurance to his readers. We see the work of the Spirit in the believer’s life.
By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.”
I John 4:13
The Spirit assures us, prompts us, convicts us, and enables us to grow more into Christ’s image. What an incredible gift and blessing that we have as believers. Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”
And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
I John 4:14,15
David Guzik summarizes these verses well: “It isn’t enough to know the facts about who Jesus is; we must confess the truth. The idea behind the word confess is “to be in agreement with.” We must agree with God about who Jesus is, and we find out what God says about Jesus through the Word of God. You may know something without being in agreement with it; God demands our true agreement.”
Perhaps you are here today and do not have a relationship with God, yet you have felt the Holy Spirit’s prompting within your heart. You have been seeking to be known and loved. I can tell you that there is no greater love than from a relationship with Christ, and I know anyone in here who professes faith in Christ would agree with me. Our passage today invites you to come to Jesus, confess your sins, and believe in Christ’s atoning work on the cross for you and the love that He has for you:
Oh taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!
Psalm 34:8
In verse sixteen, John repeats himself again by stating that God is love, and that as we abide in His love, we abide in God and grow into full maturity.
Verse seventeen tells us the consequence of this abiding is God’s love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence on the day of judgement. This verse shows the importance of fellowship within the local church—our weekly gathering and fellowship is an integral part of God’s love witnessing to one another. The local church is the place where we get to actively participate in God’s sanctifying work within ourselves and amongst each other, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgement.
The day of judgement, for the unbeliever, is a fearful and dreaded day. However, if we are followers of Christ, we have no need to fear. John tells us in verse seventeen that “as he is so also are we in this world.” What does that mean? As he (Christ) is, so also are we, sons and daughters of God.
Earlier, in chapter three, John begins in joyful expression by saying:
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God, and so we are! The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
I John 3:1-3
This is God’s love perfected in us. In verse eighteen, John assures us that God’s perfect love casts out fear. What would cause someone to have fear? Why would John even address this? Here we see that fear has to do with punishment.
I recall as a child, when I disobeyed my mom (or dad), I dreaded the return of my father from work. I knew what awaited me. I grew up in a spanking household–the dreaded wooden spoon. Granted, this was loving discipline, and was by no means unjust, there needed to be a payment for the wrong that I had committed. I feared, because I didn’t trust that my parents really loved me if they disciplined me.
God the Father remains both completely just and completely loving by having his Son Christ take the punishment that was due to each of us. This is how John is able to say that perfect love casts out fear: Christ’s perfect love has taken the punishment on the cross. When we abide in God’s love, we are perfected (made more complete) in God’s love and have no cause for fear. Romans tells us:
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry ‘Abba! Father!’
Romans 8:15
Hebrews says:
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
Hebrews 10:19 - 24
What assurance we have as followers of Christ. We can KNOW with confidence our position with God, today. There is no, “Ehhh, I’m just not sure about where I stand with God. I really screwed up yesterday, and I’m dragging my feet because I’m nervous about how He’ll view me.”
Brothers and sisters, if this is you, pray for God’s love to be perfected in you more fully–it is available. Abide in God’s love. Commit these verses to memory when you have your doubts, and when your faith is wavering. There is rest in His finished work on the cross.
God’s Love Compels
We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
I John 4:19-21
John has book-ended this passage today with a simple command: whoever loves God must also love his brother. He has expounded on this idea since chapter 1. John draws the connection logically, reasoning there should be no incongruency between loving God and loving your brother/sister in Christ. God’s love compels us to love one another—we must love one another.
I was convicted last week as Jack preached on the various forms in which we see hatred manifested. It is not often outright murder. Jack taught that hatred could look like bitterness, resentment, envy, or jealousy. If we think about the idea that every man and woman is made in God’s image, and therefore has intrinsic value and worth, it is easy to see John’s logic when he says, “If anyone says ‘I love God’ and hates his brother, he is a liar, for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.”
Once again, we see what John has mentioned earlier in I John 3:18, Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. And you think to yourself, “But Nathan, that is hard. It is hard to love my brother or my sister.” Or maybe you say, “I am hard to love.”
How can we grow our affections for one another? How can we grow to prioritize loving our brothers and sisters? John (and more importantly God) does not give us an escape route because it is difficult. In fact, he condemns any sense of laziness or apathy on our end.
Verse twenty-one says that we “must” love our brothers and sisters. So how can we do this? The only way we can love our brothers and sisters is because of what John says in verse nineteen: “We love because he first loved us.” Here again, we see our dependency on Christ—the only way we are capable of loving is because Christ has loved us first.
Meditating on this statement is very important:
“Now remember, we never make ourselves love Christ more by flogging ourselves for not loving him more. We come to love those better whom we love by knowing them better… If you want to love Christ more, think more of him, think more of what you have received from him.”
- Charles H. Spurgeon
What Spurgeon and John are saying is that as we focus and meditate on God’s love for us, it will compel us to love Him and others more, so we can echo the words Paul says in 2 Corinthians:
For the love of Christ [compels] us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
2 Corinthians 5:14
If we desire to love God more, John tells us here that we must extend love to one another. In fact, this is one of the primary ways that we can come to love the triune God more.
Consider with me the ramifications of this commandment: Say we came into this building every Sunday, held no regard for the people that entered this building, sang songs to God within our own personal space, chose not to pray or encourage those around us who were going through difficult things, held grudges against one another, refused to offer help or service to those in need, and lived within our own isolated, selfish world.
What might an outsider, and consequently the world, conclude? These people look just like us! They hold no regard for one another. What about their life is compelling or attractive?
Jesus tells us in the gospel of John:
By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.
John 13:35
Our love must result in unity, the value of love for one another, church. Dan DeHaan says these convicting words in The God You Can Know: “If a sign were hung around your neck that said, ‘What I do for the Lord is wholly because I love Him!’ would what is said be true?”
The good news? God’s love, empowered by His Spirit, through the work of His Son, compels us. As followers of Christ, loving others will happen. Are you having a hard time loving others? Abide in God’s love for you. “Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God!”
As we abide and walk with God, His love will direct our hearts toward love for one another. We do not have to worry that we will strive in vain. Listen to the assurance we have in Philippians:
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
Philippians 1:6
And again, in I Thessalonians:
He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it.
I Thessalonians 5:24
Rest and abide today in the love that God has initiated toward us, that perfects us and reaches its intended goal, which will compel us to love others out of obedient response to God’s great love.