Context No. 3651 of 4322 · 1 John

1 John 4:7-12: in context

7Beloved, let’s love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love. 9By this God’s love was revealed in us, that God has sent his only born Son into the world that we might live through him. 10In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Beloved, if God loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love has been perfected in us.

John gives us one of the profound statements in all of Scripture: God is love. Love is not merely something God does; it is who he is, the very essence of his being. And John grounds our call to love not in sentiment but in what God has actually done.

In this is love, he writes, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Love is defined not by our feelings but by the cross, God giving his Son for us while we were still sinners. And the conclusion is inescapable: if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. Having received such love, we cannot hoard it; it must flow out to others. And there is a wonder in this: though no one has ever seen God, when we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is made complete in us. The invisible God becomes visible in a community that loves; to love one another is to make the God who is love present in the world.

Have I received the love God showed in giving his Son, and does that love flow out from me to others, making the invisible God visible in how I love?

Sources

1 John 4:8: "He who doesn't love doesn't know God, for God is love."
1 John 4:10: "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins."
1 John 4:11: "Beloved, if God loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another."