1 John 4:7-21·~1 min

Love Comes from God

John calls the beloved to love one another because love originates in God and marks those who are born of Him and know Him. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This love was revealed decisively when God sent His only Son into the world so that believers might live through Him, and when He sent the Son as the atoning sacrifice for sins. Since God has loved in this way, believers must love one another. Though no one has seen God, love for one another manifests His abiding presence and the maturing of His love among His people.

B⁷eloved, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹This is how God’s love was revealed among us: God sent His one and only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. ¹⁰And love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹²No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is perfected in us.

John then explains how believers know that they remain in God and God in them: He has given them of His Spirit. Apostolic witness joins this assurance by testifying that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Confessing Jesus as the Son of God marks mutual abiding between God and the believer. John concludes that he and his readers have come to know and believe the love God has for them, and that abiding in love is abiding in God Himself. The paragraph ties the Spirit, apostolic witness, confession, and love into one unified account of assurance.

¹³By this we know that we remain in Him, and He in us: He has given us of His Spirit. ¹⁴And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. ¹⁵If anyone confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. ¹⁶And we have come to know and believe the love that God has for us. God is love; whoever abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

John finally explains that perfected love produces confidence for the day of judgment, because in this world believers increasingly share Christ's likeness. Fear cannot coexist with perfected love, because fear is bound up with punishment, while love rests in God's prior initiative. Believers love because He first loved them. Any claim to love God while hating a brother is exposed as false, because one cannot genuinely love the unseen God while refusing love to the seen brother. The command is therefore plain and unavoidable: whoever loves God must love his brother also.

¹⁷In this way, love has been perfected among us, so that we may have confidence on the day of judgment; for in this world we are just like Him. ¹⁸There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. The one who fears has not been perfected in love. ¹⁹We love because He first loved us. ²⁰If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. ²¹And we have this commandment from Him: Whoever loves God must love his brother as well.

Section summaryJohn then turns from discernment to the divine source and shape of love. Believers must love one another because love comes from God and reveals that a person has been born of God and knows Him. The absence of love exposes ignorance of God, because God is love. John's deepest explanation of this love lies in the Father's mission of the Son: God loved first, sent His only Son so that believers might live through Him, and gave Him as the atoning sacrifice for sins. Therefore believers must love one another. Such love manifests God's abiding presence, is confirmed by the Spirit, and is inseparable from confessing Jesus as the Son of God. As love is perfected, it produces confidence for the day of judgment and drives out fear. The chapter concludes by insisting that anyone who claims to love God while hating a brother is a liar, for the unseen God cannot be loved apart from love for the visible brother.

Role in the chapterThis section reveals God's love in the sending of the Son and shows that perfected love creates assurance, fearlessness, and real love for one another.