Lesson 7, part 1

Lesson #7  Love in Word and Deed  pp. 47-53

Text:  1 John 4:7-21

Introduction

1 Corinthians is well known as the “love” chapter of the Bible, yet here in 1 John we learn much about love as well.  The word love is used in its verb and noun forms some forty-three times in this small epistle.  Here in 1 John 4:7-5:3 it is used thirty-two times.  Without love, all that we do is empty.  Without love, a Christian is just going through the motions.  It is love that makes our service to God and others alive and real.  It is our love that gives purpose to our sacrifices, as well as power to our speech.  Bottom line is that it is love that makes what you and I believe believable to others.  Without love, Christianity is just another empty religion.

                As John writes to us we are to remember three loves:  God’s love for us, our love for God, and our love for one another.  This is actually the third time John has addressed the subject of love in this letter.  First in 1 John 2:7-11, it was presented as our test of proof of fellowship with God.  Second, in 1 John 3:10-14 it is presented as our test of proof of sonship with God.  Now we come to chapter 4 and John gets to the very foundation of love, “love is of God …for God is love.”  Love is a portion of the very being and nature of who God is.  Thus, since His nature is love, love is the test of the reality of our spiritual life.

I.  Love Originates with God  (1 John 4:7-11)  pp.48-49

(Verses 7-8)

 First we must understand this word “love” (agape) that John uses.  This is not a sentimental, emotional feeling type of word.  This is not an Oprah group hug that solves all the worlds ills type of word.  It is so much more than a description of how you feel.  Yes love is a word that involves emotions, but the biblical concept of love is such that it is unconditional, not dependent upon circumstances.  It is a love that seeks the higher good for the one to whom it is applied.  This love is one of complete, total, all-in commitment regardless of outcome.  In Bible study there is a thing called the Law of First Mention.  What that means is that the first time a word is found in the Bible, the context in which it occurs sets the pattern for its primary usage and development throughout the rest of scripture.  The first actual use of love is found in Gen. 22:2, “Take now thine son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest…”

                With the law of first mention in mind, let’s think about what godly biblical love is.  For most of us, this is very strange to find love first mentioned not in connection with a man’s love for his wife, or even a man’s love for God.  Not a mother’s love for her children, not a brotherly love or even a love of country, but rather a love of a father for his son.  Not just a father’s love for his son, but in connection with the sacrificial offering of that only beloved son.  Thus we are to understand throughout the rest of the Bible, the idea of true Biblical love as being represented by the deep love of a father for his only son, demonstrated through his willingness to slay him.  This is to be the most comprehensive and meaningful understanding of what it means to love.  When John writes in his gospel (3:16), “For God (the Father) so loved the world (all humanity) that He gave His only begotten Son (Jesus), that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  We see the absolute fullness of what it means to love,  to give of the very best you have to offer regardless of consequences, even to ungrateful, unappreciative people that will not reciprocate that love back.  True biblical love is never “I love you if, or I love you because”.  Quite frankly, there in nothing in any of us that would cause God to love us.  God’s love for us in motivated by who He is, not by who we are.  So when John tells us in verse 7 “let us love one another:  for love is of God” we now should have a better understanding of what he means.  Just as our heavenly Father showed us His love through the sacrifice of Jesus, we too will not demonstrate true love without personal cost involved.  So we are first commanded to love one another because love is of God or love finds its source in God.  In other words, love radiates from God’s very nature. (Vs. 8 “God is love”)  Do not misunderstand this.  God is love, but love is not God.  Love is not the totality of who or what God is.  John also says God is spirit. (John 4:24) as well God is light (1 John 1:5).  These are descriptive attributes of God’s nature.  None of them express a complete revelation of God.  So to better understand this let’s just say love doesn’t define God, God defines love.  Think about this.  God cannot fall in love, He is love.  God cannot fall in love for the same reason that water cannot get wet; water by nature is what wet is.  God is love in never ending action so God, by His own nature, is loving.

                Now the second reason we are commanded to love one another is because we are born of God, and therefore, knoweth God.  The presence of love in your life is an evidence of your being born of God.  John is not saying that anybody who has ever had a feeling of love is therefore a Christian, but he is talking about the relationship between God and believers.  Just as when you have children, they automatically possess your DNA.  They have your nature, certain traits, and characteristics which have been genetically passed on to them.  So too, a similar thing happens to those who have been “born again”.  If God as to His nature is love, then everybody who is a partaker of His nature is love also.  If you are truly saved, love should become second nature to you.  Not only have we been “born of God”, but we also know God.  This word “know” conveys the meaning of having an intimate relationship with God.  It is the biblical word used to express the most intimate part of a husband’s and wife’s relationship.  To “know” is much more than just the facts about God or to understand the truth about God.  To “know” really means to be rightly related to Him.  God’s love has to produce genuine change in us.  By responding to God’s love towards us, we then are able to become loving people.  As we look at what John says about love and it’s being perfected in us (verses 5, 12, 17), the idea is that of love reaching its aim or purpose in us.  That as we mature spiritually, being a loving person is one of God’s goals for our lives.

So in verse 7, John emphasized our knowing by our actions.  In verse 8 he says the exact same thing, but in the negative.  As much as godly love is evidence that you know God, the lack of godly love is evidence that you don’t know God.

(Verses 9-10)

                As we have seen, love is a very powerful emotion, yet it is so much more that just emotion.  True biblical love is action.  Our words and our actions need to align.  God is like that.  His actions never contradict His word.  God has proven His expressed love through His action of sending His only begotten Son.  The word manifested means to make visible or to make known, to reveal.  God proved His love through the gift of Jesus “that we might live through Him.”  Spiritual and eternal life is found only in Jesus Christ.  He is the only way.  In Acts 4:12, Peter says “Neither is there salvation in any other:  for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.”  Jesus Himself said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life:  no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6)

                In verse 10 John says “Here in is love”.  In other words, if you want to know what love is, consider this.  God the Father did not send Jesus because we loved Him so, so , so very much, but rather because He loved us so, so, so very much.  Natural unregenerated man has no love for God, and is by nature alienated from God and antagonistic towards God. (Col. 1:21)  God loved us even when we had no love for Him and demonstrated that love by sending Jesus to be our “propitiation”.  That is to say Jesus makes provision for our salvation.  Here and in chapter 2 verse 2 are the only times this Greek word is used in the New Testament.  Twice more, a closely related word is used and translated once as “propitiation” (Romans 3:25) and once as “mercy seat” (Hebrews 9:5).  The idea here is that of the Day of Atonement, when the high priest sprinkled the blood from the brazen altar onto the mercy seat, the lid to the Ark of the Covenant.  The Ark contained the stone tablets (the Law), which demanded death for the law breaker.  The blood upon the lid turned it from a seat of judgment into a seat of mercy.  Atonement was made for the sins of Israel for another year (Lev. 16).  Likewise, it is the blood of Jesus which satisfies the righteous demands of the Father, making it possible for reconciliation with God.

                Verse 11 is self explanatory.  Because God went to such lengths to show us His love toward us, we ought (implies a moral obligation combined with an inner motivation) also to love one another.  Our motivation or obligation to love others has nothing to do with what they have or have not done for us, but rather because of what God has already done for us.  God did not love us because we deserved to be loved, nor do we love based upon what someone deserves.  God loves because it’s His nature, and if we are truly His children, we now share in His nature, thus we ought to love one another naturally just like our Father.