‘IF GOD SO LOVED US …’ – 1 John 4:7-12

But it does more. It must also transform the way you love others. I believe that’s the great point that the apostle John is seeking to make to us in this morning’s passage. The love that God has shown us in Christ should transform us and motivate our love for one another.

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Let’s look at this morning’s passage a little closer and see how John expressed this to us.

First, notice how he began. He began by calling the readers of his letter “Beloved”. That’s a truly wonderful greeting. It may be that he was simply expressing his own deep love for his Christian readers. But I believe there’s more to it than that. I believe John was telling them what they truly were in the sight of God. They were His “beloved ones”. God had demonstrated an infinite and everlasting love toward them by sending His Son to die on the cross for them and redeem them to Himself. It can’t help but transform you when you know that you are the beloved of God in Christ! It changes everything!

And so; what did John want his readers—these beloved of God—to understand? The first thing he told them is that . . .

1. OUR LOVE FOR ONE ANOTHER IS INSEPARABLE FROM A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD.

To be the beloved of God means that we must love everyone else who is the beloved of God. The two realities go together as the two sides of one coin.

Look at how John said this in verse 8. He wrote his word of instruction: “Beloved, let us love one another . . .”; and then he gave the reason for it, “for love is of God . . .” Now; you wouldn’t be able to tell this from the English translation, but what John really says is, “for the love is of God”. He’s not talking about any ol’ love. He’s not talking about the kind of romantic, sentimental, feelings-oriented love that we celebrate on Valentine’s Day—as wonderful as that is. Rather, he’s talking about “the love”—the love that has its source in the person of God. It’s the kind of love we find in John 3:16—“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

This is agapā love in its highest form—a sacrificial love that is willing to give its all for the good of the one loved. And this kind of love has its ultimate source only in God; because, as John says, “for the love is of God”. And may I just pause for a moment and offer what is—I hope—a sanctified social commentary? The world is striving right now to bring about that kind of love. You’ll agree, I’m sure, that we’re living in a time of greater division and hostility than most of us have ever seen in our lifetimes. Hatred is everywhere. And all of the politicians and civic leaders of our day are trying desperately to make people “love one another”. They’re trying to ‘legislate’ love for one another. May I suggest that worthy goal cannot be brought about by politics, or education, or economic equality, or any of the other ways it is being sought? If “the love is of God”—and if this love can not come about by any other way than by the transformation of the human heart by the love of God through Jesus Christ—then the greatest need of our day is that the gospel of Jesus Christ be faithfully proclaimed. People need first to be made right with the God who is the source of “the love”; and then, by the transforming power of God’s love through a sincere faith in Christ, they will grow increasingly to love!

John went on to explain; “and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” Since love can only come through a relationship with the God of love, everyone who truly loves shows themselves to have been “born again” by God. They demonstrate that they have been brought into new life by Him. They know Him. They have a relationship with Him. They are God’s own children; and like good children, they behave like their Father. They love with the love that comes only from Him. And to show that this is absolutely necessary, John went on to express it in the opposite way: “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”

Have you ever thought about that phrase “God is love”, by the way? It’s an amazing one; isn’t it? Dr. Harry Ironside, an old preacher from many years ago, gave an easy way to remember where to find that phrase in the Bible. He said to remember that four twice is eight; and eight twice is sixteen. You’ll find that phrase “God is love” in 1 John 4:8 and 16. (There you are—a little math with your sermon!)

But what does it mean that God is love? I used to think it meant that God is love in a symbolic kind of way—that He is so identified with the love that He shows us, and is so great in His love, that we can say, “God is love”. That, of course, is true. But I now cannot help but think of this phrase as an expression of God’s actual nature as Triune. God is presented to us in the Bible as one God in three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And God has always existed in an eternal union of being. The Father forever loves the Son and the Spirit; the Son forever loves the Father and the Spirit; and the Spirit forever loves the Father and the Son. These three are one in a union of eternal love. So in a very real, very objective sense—in terms of the very triune being of God—God truly is love!

And if that’s the case, then how can anyone be in a genuine relationship of love with God and—at the same time—hate those whom God has also brought into union with Himself? It is simply not possible! John puts the matter pretty clearly at the end of the fourth chapter:

If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.

Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him (1 John 4:20-5:1).

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So; that’s one reason why God’s love for us must motivate us to love each other. Our love for one another cannot be separated from a true relationship with the triune God of love.

And then, John went on to give another reason . . .

2. LOVING ONE ANOTHER IS THE DEBT WE OWE FOR HAVING BEEN LOVED BY GOD OURSELVES.

Simply put, if God has shown such great love for me, as terribly sinful and unworthy as I was, then my reception of that love obligates me to love others.

Look at how John explained this. Follow his line of reasoning carefully. In verse 9, he wrote; “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.” Notice how John refers to Jesus: as God’s only begotten Son. That’s not meant to say that Jesus was “begotten” in the sense that He was created; or that He didn’t exist until He was born in this world through His incarnation. It’s a way of expressing His great value to the Father. As God’s only begotten Son, Jesus was that which was most dear to the Father’s heart. When God gave up His Son for us—sending Him to take all the cursedness and guilt of our sin upon Himself and die in our place; and even to the point that God the Father had to turn from the Son as He hung on the cross, and that the Son had to cry out in anguish, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”—He was performing the greatest act of sacrificial love for us that the universe could possibly know.

What’s more, God did this on His own initiative. In verse 10, John wrote; “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us . . .” We didn’t get God’s attention by first loving Him and attracting Him to us. In fact, we were in a state of enmity toward Him. The way that the apostle Paul put it is this: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). He didn’t wait for us to take the first move. He didn’t look upon us and see that we had proven ourselves worthy of His love. He took the initiative while we were still very unlovely in our sin. His own love made the first move.

And note further that He did this in such a way as to remove any barrier that could stand between Himself and us. John wrote that God took the initiative of love toward us, “and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins”. For Jesus to be “the propitiation” for our sins means that He was sent—and went willingly in obedience to the Father—to become that which satisfied the just wrath of God for sin on our behalf. He became the atoning sacrifice which completely removed whatever it was that stood between a holy God and sinners like us. In love, God has removed all the barriers that stood in the way, so that we can now enter into a relationship of love with Him in all purity and joy.

It’s wonderful isn’t it? What great love it is that the Father has shown to us in His Son! It is “the love”! But look at what John then went on to say in verse 11. Look at the consequence that must follow: “Beloved”—and there’s that name again!— “if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” How could you and I grasp such a great love—and enter into the experience of it—and then withhold love from our brother or sister in Christ afterward? God’s love for us places us under a continual, moral obligation of love for one another.

Consider what it would mean that we ought to “so . . . also love one another”. Break it down into its parts. If God first so loved us that He sacrificially for us—even of the very best and most precious of His heart; His only begotten Son—then aren’t we now obligated to love one another sacrificially? John wrote elsewhere;

By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? (1 John 3:16-17).

And if God first took the initiative in love toward us—loving us even when we were unworthy sinners—then aren’t we obligated to be the ones to take the initiative to love one another? We shouldn’t wait for our brother or sister to prove themselves worthy of our love first. Shouldn’t we serve each other without any concern about whether or not anything could be done for us in return?

And if God first took the initiative with us to remove any barrier that stood between ourselves and Him, then aren’t we obligated to do whatever we can to remove whatever barriers might exist between each other? Shouldn’t we be the first ones to go to our brother or sister and ask their forgiveness for any way we might have hurt or offended them? And if they have hurt us, shouldn’t we be the first ones to set aside all offense and prove ourselves eager to forgive?

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And that leads us to one more reason John gives for why the love of God should be the motive for our loving one another. It’s that . . .

3. OUR LOVE FOR ONE ANOTHER IS THE SURE PROOF THAT GOD TRULY ABIDES IN US.

You might say that our love for one another is the greatest apologetic we can give to the world for the truth of the Christian faith. Our words about our faith are important, of course; but our words backed up by the undeniable evidence of our love for one another become powerful!

Look at how John explained this. In verse 12, he wrote, “No one has seen God at any time.” And you might read that and think, “But wait a minute. I thought that there were people in the Bible who did see God. Didn’t God once come to meet Abraham? Didn’t Moses talk to God face to face? And what about Samson’s mother and father?” But it might help to remember what John said back in the Gospel of John—in John 1:18. He wrote this about Jesus: “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” It would seem, then, that what those Old Testament saints saw of God was revealed to them in the preincarnate appearance of the Son of God Himself. Remember what Jesus once said?—“He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9)?

So; no one has seen God the Father at any time. Jesus came and revealed the Father to us, and died on the cross to save us, and has returned to the Father. And no one has seen Jesus on earth for nearly twenty-one centuries either. But God the Father has not left this world without a clear testimony that He is real. It’s through us—His redeemed followers—in our love for one another in Jesus. John wrote; “If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.”

Think of what that means. If we love one another, God abides in us. That means that our mutual love for one another in Christ is a proof to the world that we are indwelt by Him. It’s that demonstration of “the love”—the agapā love that can only come through a relationship with God, and that transcends every human barrier and difference between us, and that unites us in Christ—that shows the world that we really are the dwelling place of God on earth!

And it also means that if we love one another in this way, God’s own love has been perfected in us! God loves us with a perfect love; but to some degree He allows that love to be ‘incomplete’ until it finds its fulfillment in our love for one another. It’s as if our love for one another ‘completes the circuit’ of God’s love and brings it to the fulfillment of its purpose. Do you remember what Jesus said when He gave us His “new commandment”? In the Gospel of John—in John 13:34—He told His disciples;

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34).

Look at that! He said that we are to love one another, “as I have loved you”—and that gives us the pattern; “that you also love one another”—and that gives us the purpose! He loved us with a self-sacrificing love so that we would do the same toward one another! And then, in verse 35, He added, “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

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What a great love it is that God the Father has shown us in Jesus! It’s a love that we should think about the most on a day like this—a day dedicated to love!

Let’s let ourselves be impacted by such a great love. Let’s think much about it. Let’s let it sink in and deeply change us from the inside out. And most of all, let’s remember:

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another (v. 11).