John turns somewhat abruptly from his discussion of true and
false teachers (4:1-6) to make yet
another appeal to his readers, that they should love one another. In fact, this
is now the third time that he exhorts his readers to love one another. [1] This subject obviously weighs heavily on his
mind.
Let us remind ourselves of what we have seen and learned previously.
John started his letter with a great statement about the Lord Jesus Christ (1:1-4). He has seen Jesus personally in
the flesh. He has looked upon Him and touched Him (1:1). He was of the inner circle
of Jesus, and he is frequently referred to as the disciple whom Jesus loved[2].
Church history tells us that the apostle
John lived into the late 90’s of the first century. He was the last surviving
apostle. John is literally a first generation Christian. He is a man who had
walked with Jesus for a long way. His personal acquaintance, knowledge and
experience of Jesus is profound. We
learn much about Jesus from the gospel of John, the three letters of John and
from the Revelation to John. He was known
as the apostle of love. That is what happens if you spend a lifetime with
Jesus. He became so much like Jesus.
The subject of love is at the heart of our text. In fact, this
subject is at the heart of this entire letter. It is at the heart of John’s
life and ministry. This love however,
does not stand on its own. It is rooted in the person of Jesus. It is rooted in
the very being of God. It gives definition to God’s being: God is love! (4:8,16)
It is very clear that John’s Christian readers were
struggling with the world in which they were living. Their confidence in Christ
was being undermined. They needed
answers and assurances from this senior brother and pastor. This was all due to
the fact that their world (like our world) was contaminated by sin. The current
worldwide outbreak of the Covid-19 virus
serves us with an illustration in terms of how pervasive and devastating sin is.
The
devil [3]
is the originator of sin in the world. He “has
been sinning from the beginning” (3:8).
“The whole world lies in the power of the
evil one” (5:19).The devil, through
the spirit of the anti-Christ [4]
(2:18) takes people captive by
replacing Christ[5]
with other loves. This he does by making them focus on the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes and the pride of life
(2:16). His agents on earth are deceivers, false prophets and false
spirits (2:26;3:7; 4:1-6). They were
replacing the Lord Jesus Christ and substituting His truth by promoting error
in the world. False thinking about Jesus has leads humanity astray into sin of
all kinds.
Even Christians get led astray. When sin and false thinking
about Jesus dominates a Christian’s life, they struggle with lack of assurance,
because the centre does not hold.
Sin also infects fellowship; it affects our sense of assurance. It robs us of our joy. Walking
in darkness (1:6); not loving the
brothers (2:9,11; 3:10,15,17); loving the world (2:15); accepting false
teaching about Christ (2:18ff; 4:1-6) are all hindrances to our fellowship, assurance and joy
1 John 4:7-5:5
And so we take note that this is the third time that John addresses
the matter of loving one another. The
word for love here and throughout his
letter is the distinct Christian word, ‘agape’.
The possession of this unique love is
one of the evidences and assurances that one is a born again believer. Remember again, that John wrote this letter
to provide his readers with assurance and real joy. And again we must be
reminded that the devil was hard at work through the spirit of the anti-Christ,
the false prophets and the deceivers to undermine this assurance, by undermining
the public’s confidence in Jesus. This
is very important for us to see. Notice
that John was busy writing about the importance of loving one another in 3:11-24, when he interrupted himself to
speak about the disruptive work of Satan and his agents in 4:1-6 before he continues to speak about the importance of love
again in 4:7-5:5.
The point is this. If you destroy the true testimony of Jesus,
you destroy the true origin and meaning of love. If you can undermine confidence
in the source of Christian love, you make agape
love, Christian love, less profound than it is. So, it is important to see
that John does not divorce truth (as it is in Jesus and God) from the exercise of
love. Love in itself without truth is
merely sentimental. It is unprincipled. Conversely, truth without love can be
harsh. John keeps the balance. The child
of God both believes, AND loves (see 3:23).
John wants Christians to be rooted in Jesus- who is the truth, AND he wants them
to exhibit the love of Jesus at the same time.
So, as we look at our passage, we see that John is on about
two things:
(i)
He wants us to see that the source
of love is God. He
wants us to draw from that source.
(ii)
He wants us to reflect God’s love. This is proof or assurance that we
are the children of God. (Remember that this letter is about assurance!)
In 4:7a we see
this clearly: “Beloved, let us love one another for love is from God.”
Three things:
(i)
Notice
how John lovingly addresses his readers: beloved
(agapētoi) cf. 4:1,7,11.
He leads by example. He practises what he preaches. He loves his readers
(ii)
The
source of love (agapē) is
from God. God is love (4:8). God defines love. He gives us the capacity to
love (cf. Rom 5:5)
(iii)
True
believers manifest this love towards fellow Christians.
4:7b,8 “…
and whoever loves has been
born of God and knows God. 8.
Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” The presence or absence of such love
determines whether one has been born again, and whether one knows God, or
whether one is not born again and therefore doesn’t know God. John makes his argument in a positive and in a
negative way (Hebrew parallelism[6])
SUMMARY: Our text speaks about God,
the source of love, and the believer as he / she reflects the love of God,
particularly now among fellow believers. In the text that follows, John repeats this thought in one way and
another. We are not going to deal with the rest of our text systematically but thematically. Let us then see what else we can learn
about God, the source of love and the believer as he/she expresses the love of God in practical ways to
his /her fellow believer.
1. God – the Source of love
· 4:7 Love is
from God
· 4:8 God is love. See also 4:16
· 4:9 The love of God was made supremely manifest
in the giving of Jesus cf. John 3:16)
· 4:10a (see also
4:19) The prior love of God. He loved us first.
· 4:10b He gave
His Son as a propitiation for our sins. Propitiation
= In Christ’s sacrifice God deals with the problem of His own righteous
anger towards us. [Expiation = In
Christ’s sacrifice God deals with the problem of our personal sin, by
effectively removing it. A ‘double cure’
is needed]
2. The Believer – under obligation to
show the love of God in
their love for
fellow believers
John works out the
application of love in two ways:
(i)
Loving
one another (positive)
(ii)
What happens if
we do not love one another (negative)
The act of loving one another is motivated by the understanding
of the amazing manifestation of God’s love in 4: 9-11. John’s conclusion is, “Beloved, if God so loved us (in this wonderful and astonishing manner), we also ought to love one another.
Conversely, John spells out the implications of not loving
one another. It is a sure sign of not being born again and of not knowing God
experientially (4:7b). In
particular John challenges us that it is
impossible to say that one is a Christian if one bears hatred in their heart
towards a brother or sister cf. 4:20.
(cf. 2:9-11)
A few more general observations
1. The call to love is rooted in the commandment of God (4:21, 5:2,3). Why must we love our brothers? Because God has commanded it. Period!
2.
A word about the perfection of God’s
love in the believer
(cf. 4:12,17,18). Very often we
sense that we are not perfect in the application of love. The perfection spoken
about does not relate here to the fact that we always succeed, but the fact
that God has placed within us a perfect and loving Saviour. I will find that I
more I trust Him and the more I rely upon Him the more I shall find supernatural capacity even to love and forgive my
enemy! The Christian life lived
by faith in the indwelling Christ constantly amazes. Another wonderful fact that relates to our assurance is found
in 4:17,18:
”By this is love perfected with us so that
we may have confidence (assurance) on the
day of judgement.” The more we trust
in Christ, the more our love is perfected, the less we shall fear the coming
judgement. And another wonderful by-product of a perfected love is this: “There
is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, for fear has to do with
punishment”. And again conversely, “Whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” (4:18)
3.
A key word (also found in John 15) for maintaining biblical love is ‘abiding‘
(cf.4:12,13,15,16). Being rooted
in Christ is the key. The Holy Spirit helps us in this regard (4:13)
5:1-5 Believing in Christ
is the key to being able to manifest biblical love
As we close we take note how important it is to root our life
entirely in Christ (5:1,5). All the fears, imperfections of our lives in this
world are taken care of when we abide and grow in Christ. Again, we take note how we cannot truly
love without being rooted in the truth of Christ. The truth of Christ leads to
authentic love. Sadly, so often a wedge is driven between those two things. We
hear people say, “Doctrine (absolute insistence
upon truth) divides! We need to stop
talking about all this doctrine and just love one another.” As far as John
is concerned, you cannot do that. Truth
as it is in Jesus energises love. Apart from this it is watered down. Truth and
love go hand in hand. They cannot be separated without damage to one or the
other.
I trust that you realise what is at stake here. I trust that
you now appreciate the closing words in 5:3-5. This poor, messed up world will not be conquered and overcome if we
do not continue to believe and abide in Christ, and if we are not ruled by the
love of God. In fact the world will overcome and conquer us. We have relied on
false versions of love for far too long. And sadly we see that this compromise of church,
and of many Christians, has led Christianity to be in such an impoverished
state in our own society, and now the world is poorer for our absence. This
world needs the truth driven love of God. You are God’s representatives. Go and do something about it. It is not a
suggestion. It is a command from God.
[1] Cf. 1 Jn. 2:7-11 ; 3:11-18
[2] John 13:23; 19:26; 20:2; 21:7,20
[3] 1
John 2:13,14; 3:8,12
[4] 2:18,22
[5] That’s what anti-Christ means –“ in place of”
[6]
E.g. for further study about Hebrew
parallelism : https://www.olivetree.com/blog/poetry-bible-parallelism/
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