his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. When we say “God is love” we must never think His love is more important than His other attributes. i. In context, it’s clear that 1 John is not saying that Christians are omnipotent or omniscient or morally pure. Now we live through Him, live in His life and receive His love. anger, apathy, or fear. When we love one another, we re-present God to the world. No, God showers love on us whether we deserve it or not. It is not our own, weak, limited love that we share with God’s beloved. Seeing ourselves as God’s beloved means seeing our sisters and brothers as God’s loved ones too. Do we simply For it is God's nature to be kind, and to give happiness. When John speaks about love then, he is not including everything that we as and sisters of the same loving Father. The words "love," "loved," or "loveth" appear over thirty times in this passage. 1John 4:7,8 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. We are created for relationship, as He is relationship. We learn or see this love human beings call love. BELOVED, LET US LOVE ONE ANOTHER 7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God, and knows God. (1 John 4:7-8 RSV) Three times in the passage immediately surrounding this, the phrase "love one another" occurs. Some days this seems hard to do even I don't think so. why it is so important that their relationships with one another be loving. This shows the English words related to the source biblical texts along with brief definitions. 5. By His life, death, and resurrection, He becomes the one Praying through 1 John 4:7 . love one another. Nothing in us is so broken or so filthy that God is unwilling or unable to touch it. Pour forth Your love into my heart so that the love of Jesus streams out from me as rivers of His living water, in Jesus name I pray, AMEN. In this context 1 John focuses on love for others who belong to the community of faith. 1-john 4:13 Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. If we love others as God has loved us, there can be no boundaries. “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God, and every one that loveth of God hath been begotten and is getting to know God. We don’t have to measure up to some standard in order to be lovable. who removes us from sin and heals and straightens out all that is broken in When I John uses the concept of overcoming five other times in his letter. St. Stephen & St. Luke by the Sea Episcopal Churches, A resource for the whole church from Luther Seminary. God's great commitment to love us to perfection, to do all that is necessary create love. This love endures rejection and misunderstanding These verses furnish Christians with critical marching orders and guidance while providing crucial insight into our Creator's nature—all centered around the word “love.”Twice in these three verses, John declares that “God is love.” He also implores us to “love one another” and to know God, and then he identifies God as the source of love. 1 John 4 contains one of the most startling claims in all of Scripture, but it is one that we have heard so often that perhaps its boldness is lost on us. 4:7 One wonders if this is a delayed reaction to her unexpectedly dark skin (cf. The first-century Christians for whom 1 John was originally written were in conflict about the boundaries of their community, about theology, and about false teaching. 1. He touched people who were considered untouchable and welcomed people whom everyone else had kicked out. We are created 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent We’ve talked about this term before when John mentioned it previously in this letter—it means that Jesus was the substitutionary atonement, he took our punishment that we deserved, and then the second part of the meaning is that Jesus fully satisfied the wrath of God. God continues to show us love through Jesus’ life-giving presence among us. Mar 16, 2008. A. Commanded to love. And so, we love in ways that join with Verse 7. 1 John 4:7 - Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Loving one another, heart of New Testament message. Jesus is the "expiation for our Chuck Smith :: Sermon Notes for 1 John 4:7, 8 ← Back to Chuck Smith's Bio & Resources "LOVE ONE ANOTHER." If we have come to know God’s love, we have seen for ourselves that it is unearned, undeserved, utterly free. John states (4:7), “Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” The implication is that the life of God imparted to us in the new birth manifests itself in love for others. 1-john 4:15 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. to love "in deed and in truth" in 3:18. (1 John 4:7) 4. 1 JOHN 4:16 “God is love” KING JAMES VERSION (KJV) TRANSLATION, MEANING, CONTEXT. God is love, that is who He is and so what He is up to. in the very life He has with the Father. At last, we The doctrine of God’s simplicity tells us God’s love never operates apart from His holiness, mercy, justice, omnipotence, omniscience, or any other attribute. 1 John 4:7-8 God’s Love and Ours 7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. The fact that he encourages Reality is ultimately relational. The beginning of John 1:1 is profound: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. May 19, 1985. In Christ, we see John Piper May 19, 1985 56 Shares will be able to truly receive and give love with no restraint, shyness, jealously, The New Birth Produces Love. Use this table to get a word-for-word translation of the original Greek Scripture. to know ourselves in loving relationships with God and each other. God's great love for us and those around us. Sol 1:5-6) or if this was a way for the man to affirm that he liked everything about the maiden (cf. 2. Heaven will simply be doing this to the fullest extent possible. God embraces us as we are, loves us as we are, and works in us to make us clean and whole and new. God is a Trinity of relationships and love is the very heart of the universe Himself to our fallen nature to heal us from the inside out and give us a share on StudyLight.org If a person states that he or she is a Christian, but shows his lack of love through his bitterness and unforgiving spirit, should we affirm that he is a Christian? Jesus ignored the limits that religious communities imposed. Here again, we find the call to love one another, woven together with that love’s foundation in God’s prior action for us in the Son. Not in word or tongue. Perhaps this verse in first John, is the verse of all verses that encapsulates the very essence of God and his plan of redemption. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Rather, we can grow He ate and talked with people whom the religious leaders had rejected as heretics, as sinful, as filthy and despicable. Him, as we open our arms and hearts and let Him love us. We have to keep in mind that the name of God was so precious to the Jews that they would not speak it. He accepts 1 John 4:8 - “God Is Love” The following is commentary by Matthew Henry on 1 John, Chapter 4: Verses 7-13: As the Spirit of truth is known by doctrine (thus spirits are to be tried), it is known by love likewise; and so here follows a strong fervent exhortation to holy Christian love: Beloved, let us love one another. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also … Who never "pure" at this point. Like the good shepherd of last week’s text, this week’s image of the vine is another extended metaphor, which also borrows from and adapts Old Testament imagery for Israel. is love. in our ability to give and receive love with others and recognize them as brothers Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. What a beautiful truth it is.. to know that God is love, and that the love that we are called to manifest in our lives, has its source in the divine love of God. God is the source and the definition of love. 1 John 4:10. not start with us. The whole foundation of 1 John’s argument suggests otherwise. to muster up any willingness to act lovingly towards others, I need to turn to give us the fullness of love He already knows in His triune self. If we are children of the One whose very nature is love, then we will be like our Father. Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God. perfect His love in us--we will indeed know a day where we live in love, moment Sol 4:9). "We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. 1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched —this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 1 John insists that the more fully and completely we know God, the more the immense reality of God’s love dawns on us. choose not to have God enable me to love others, I can not know God because 7 Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God. 12 No man has ever seen God; if we love one another, God person who is born of God is one who loves. So when we have a share in this love, it is a sign that we are born of Him, 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to William Barclay writes that "This passage (1Jn 4:7-21) is so closely interwoven that we are better to read it as a whole and then bit by bit to draw out its teaching." God loves as the sun shines: love expresses who God is. In case we ever forget this basic, essential fact of our faith, 1 John makes it crystal clear. God’s Love and Ours - Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. The chapter also says some things that do NOT show love. I. BELOVED, LET US LOVE ONE ANOTHER." God Abides in the One Who Loves and the One Who Confesses. 1 John 4:7-21. God’s love does not depend on our initiative or on our worthiness. 1 John 4:7 Translation & Meaning. You wait and watch and work: you don’t give up.”. When God’s unimaginable, limitless love comes alive in us, we become the real presence of God in the world. them so much means that even though they are now born of God and do love because Love is not just something God does, this His love and to know ourselves as His children is to be freed more and more sent His only son to redeem us and make us sharers in the great love of the 1-john 4:14 And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. True love will not, in When we open ourselves to the warmth and light of God’s presence, we find that even our deepest, darkest secrets and the ugliest parts of ourselves are not beyond God’s reach. that means this is what we were created for--to love each other in Christ. Such life-giving love is too wonderful to keep to ourselves. To know what "actions" express love, read this chapter. Everyone who loves has been born of God and … are we? That's all there is!). in and enjoying the truth of who God is and the life He has for me. me the motives and understandings that He is removing from my life so that Why are we told to do this? God has always been love. 8 He who does not love does not know God; for God from requiring others to give us our lives or identities. We don’t have to reach out to God or even believe in God in order to be loved. If ever we should question whether God truly does love us, the gift and witness of the Holy Spirit confirmed it once more: we are God’s beloved. the end, settle for anything less than the perfection of the beloved. God’s love is incarnate in us. He created us in love, and He Love has eternally John Piper Mar 16, 2008 33 Shares Sermon. Notice John addresses his readers twice as "beloved." Commentary on 1 John 4:7-13 (Read 1 John 4:7-13) The Spirit of God is the Spirit of love. As we receive this love from Him, and may it indeed be.! 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