1. (7-8) The call to love.
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
John’s emphasis on love among the people of God (shown in passages like 1 John 2:9-11 and 3:10-18) is powerful. Here, he shows why it is so important. If love is of God, then those who claim to be born of God, and claim to know God, must be able to love one another in the body of Christ.
When we are born again Love is given into our being that we did not have before. Christians we are “just forgiven” of our trespasses we are born anew by the HolySpirit.
Of course, this love must be present – and it should be growing in the child of God. We can’t truly grow in our experience of God without also growing love for one another. John can boldly say, He who does not love does not know God. If there isn’t real love for God’s people in your life, then your claim to know God and experience God isn’t true.
If you have trouble loving others then just let God, through the Holy Ghost love through you.
The love John speaks of comes from the ancient Greek word agape; it is the concept of a self-giving love that gives without demanding or expecting re-payment – it is the God-kind of love. I can’t stand a tally mark person. This is one that keeps score. And says: “I did for you now you do for me.” They expect special treatment. Love has no score and expects no return. The Spirit of God loves unconditional.
Since this is God’s kind of love, it comes into our life through our relationship with Him. If we want to love one another more, we need to draw closer to God. We were born to love God. But our nature is to rebel and if we are in rebellion it is hard to love someone else, because we are in love with self.
Every human relationship is like a triangle. The two people in the relationship are at the base of the triangle, and God is at the top. As the two people draw closer to the top of the triangle they pull closer to God, but then they will also draw closer to one another. Weak relationships are made strong when both people draw close to the Lord!
Everyone who loves is born of God… He who does not love does not know God: This does not mean that every display of love in the world can only come from a Christian. Those who are not Christians still can display acts of love. Yet, deep divine love comes from God. People have a love that keeps score and those same people expect to gain a return.
It is because men are created in the image of God, an image that has been defaced but not destroyed by the Fall, that they still have the capacity to love.
This is a glorious truth. Love describes the character and heart of God. He is so rich in love and compassion, that it can be used to describe His very being.
When we say God is love, we are not saying everything about God. Love is an essential aspect of His character, and colors every aspect of His nature. But it does not eliminate His holiness, His righteousness, or His perfect justice. Instead, we know the holiness of God is loving, and the righteousness of God is loving, and the justice of God is loving. Everything God does, in one way or another, expresses His love. Therefore, everything that we do should also express the love of God.
We should be givers. We should masters at putting love into action.
The Bible also tells us that God is spirit (John 4:24),
God is light(1 John 1:5),
and that God is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29).
Here John tells us that God is love: There are few people who really know and really believe that God is love. For whatever reason, they won’t receive His love and let it transform their lives. It transforms our life to know the love of God in this way. Loving people is easy when you allow God to love them through you! We have to submit all and allow God to work through us. We have to be a willing vessel!
Verses 9-11 give the meaning of love and its application.
“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. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
Love was proven when God sent His only begotten Son: This shows us what love is and what it means. Love is not only defined by the sacrifice of Jesus (as stated in 1 John 3:16); it is also defined by the giving of the Father. It was a sacrifice for the Father to send the Second Person of the Trinity, and a sacrifice to pour out the judgment we deserved upon God the Son.
Furthermore, I like that John is careful to call Jesus the only begotten Son. This special term means Jesus has a Sonship that is unique (only) and begotten indicates that Jesus and the Father are of the same substance, the same essential Being.
The love of the Father was not only in the sending of the Son, but also in what that sending accomplishes for us. It brings life to all who trust in Jesus and His work on their behalf, because He is the propitiation for our sins.
Propitiation has the idea of a sacrifice that turns away the wrath of God. God rightly regarded us, apart from Him, as worthy targets of His judgment. We were rebels and enemies of Him, even if we didn’t know it. But on the cross, Jesus took the punishment our sin deserved – His sacrifice turned away the judgment we would have received. We easily think how this shows the love of Jesus, but John wants us to understand it also shows the love of God the Father: He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
This shows the love of God. God gave His Son to die, and to die for sinners. We can think of someone paying a great price to save someone deserving, someone good, someone noble, someone who had done much for them. But God did all this for rebels, for sinners, for those who had turned their backs on Him.
Moreover, Real love, agape love, is not defined by our love for God, but by His love for us. His love for us initiates our relationship of love with Him, our love only responds to His love for us. We can’t love God the way we should unless we are receiving and living in His love.
Our love for God doesn’t really say anything great about us. It is only the common sense response to knowing and receiving the love of God. As Romans 12 describes it falls under our reasonable services as Gods children. Love, is a fruit of the Spirit and glories God. There is doubt that if you show Gods love to the world that people will take notice and just maybe pellicular enough for someone to say yes to God.
Having received this love from God, we are directed to love one another. This pattern of receiving from God, then giving to others was familiar to John (John 13:14).
In this happening of Jesus’s life we can see how Jesus explained, with a concrete example, of how his disciples (us) should show love!
When Jesus washed the feet of the disciples, and showed such great love and servanthood to them, we might have expected Him to conclude by gesturing to His own feet and asking who among them was going to do to Him what He had just done for them. Instead, Jesus said: If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet (John 13:14). The proper way to love God in response to His love for us is to go out and love one another.
