1 John 4:7-14 – 2023 Aug 17

In our last study, we read the discernment tests that the Apostle John gave us regarding discernment, and he continues his discernment path here, but in a very important direction. After telling us how to tell the difference between the spirit of truth and the spirit of error, he begins to speak about how we need to love one another. This is a critical message on the need to love other believers, and in fact everyone, because God’s love starts and then operates in us ONLY through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Any other kind of love is either insufficient, or as we have defined in the past, not love but something else like greed or covetousness masquerading as some kind of “love.” As I keep stating, love is not love is not love is not love, and we cannot overlook that fact.

It is only as we agapao [love with God’s love, not man’s] everyone around us and begin to practice the love of God by exercising ourselves in the fruit of the spirit of love (agape). Joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, that God will perfect that godly love that puts the interests of others in front of ourselves. This is how he perfects us [telios, to bring to completion, to perfect] and conforms us more to the image of Christ. With that in mind, we’ll look at the study text.

I broke the text down like this:

KV10: Agape Love Operates Only Through the Gospel

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.

7-8: We may know real believers by their manifestation of the love of God

9-10: That love begins with the Gospel of Jesus Christ for us

11-12: That love should extend from us toward each other as God perfects it in us

13-14: We may know WE are believers by God’s Spirit in us

As we understand the gospel, and allow the Lord to in fact BE our Lord, this will begin and increase in our own lives. Although it is true we are NOT perfect in this expression, and in fact have a long way to go, He IS perfecting us as we walk with Him every day. Let’s look at the text in detail.

KV10: Agape Love Operates Only Through the Gospel

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.

This verse and theme deals a blow to all those that will make the claim that love is love is love is love. The first question I have to ask those individuals is, “Which love?” Are we talking about the love of the brethren? Usually not, these days. What they mean is who can I be romantically involved with for the purposes of sexual activity. I’m sorry to be so plain, but they picked the topic, not me. That isn’t love, that’s more akin to greed, coveteousness, or lust. The Greek word for what they are describing is eros, and it is never translated love in the NT.

The Greek word John uses in his letter here is agapao, and we looked in detail at that last week. It is the verb form of agape (noun), and it is the word that the translators of the Septuagint chose to translate the word for the love of God in their translation of the Hebrew Tanakh [our OT] into Greek. This love is self-sacrificing, and always puts the interests of the other in front of itself. Read 1 Cor. 13 if you want a description of it. Agape Love that is mission critical for Christianity to occur is in fact only possible if the gospel of Jesus Christ has been accepted by the one attempting to practice it. If it hasn’t been, then we have all kinds of nonsense that gets involved. Agape is the love of CHOICE, although emotions may be involved. Those emotions will not have sway in the final decisions or actions of agape love. Let’s jump into the text here.

7-8: We may know real believers by their manifestation of the love of God

The Apostle John here is is declaring that this is a kind of window into a person’s soul. If agape love is truly what motivates them, he is not only informing us that it can be distinguished, but that it is a kind of take-it-to-the-bank test we can use to assess what and who we are engaging. Further, he suggests (okay, commands) that WE be exercised in this love at all times to all people. It’s reminiscent of the good Samaritan on the road to Jericho discovering a Jew that had been robbed of everything he had with him and severely beaten. We must express that to everyone, not just by saying the words. Getting short with our brother, or indeed with our neighbour (which includes everybody) is not a good representation of our own lord and Master. I know I fail at this every day, and I also know you do too, and that’s what John is saying. Let’s look at the verses here and see what John is saying.

7: Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

You know, I know a kids’ chorus with these two verses. It goes like this. [sing it here] Pretty creative, and a great way of remembering the verses, isn’t it. That isn’t a question.
“Beloved” is a form of agape by the way. Agapeetoi is both referring to people objectively and is plural. John’s address is to those believers he loves, and by extension, that includes us. What does John now say? “Let us agapeo one another. Le us have that divine love, the love that puts everyone else in front of ourselves, that is an actual choice, that is NOT DEPENDANT on our emotions FOR EACH OTHER. THAT love, agape, is from God, and I take that to mean God alone as a source. As such, everyone who is truly “born of God,’ or if you like, “born again” or “born from above,” who has been “baptized” or completely immersed into the Holy Spirit, should at least minimally display this love sometime. And we need to do better. I know we still live in these rotting bags of sinful flesh, but or Lord has overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil. We can now display that love for all, especially when that person is making it difficult to love them. John is telling us that THAT is what shows you know God, not speaking in some unknown-to-you language. Beloved, that’s the TRUE miracle.

8: The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

Then John says something absolutely astounding, and many in the modern church today would claim to be offensive. If you do not (because you cannot) display that love of God that puts the actual interests of others in front of your own, You. Are. Not. A. Christian. END OF DISCUSSION. To illustrate my point, I’ll ask a question. Would you leave the church because a faithful pastor said that people living as a homosexual of some flavour were sinning and would not inherit the kingdom of God? He’s only faithfully reading Scripture. Agape love puts the spiritual needs of the sinner above one’s own comfort level and warns them of the consequences of continuing in that lifestyle. Clearly that isn’t what they mean when they claim incorrectly that “love is love is love is love.” Some have left the church over this point and gone deliberately to false religions like Buddhism or Hinduism. Beloved, they do not know or understand agape, and they DEMONSTRATE it by their wicked choices.
You must understand, God is agape, the Greek word here. If they cannot put the interests of others before their own, or they will not help out their brother if they can, or love their neighbour as themselves, or treat others as they would like to be treated, and I see a lot of us including me NOT doing that, then how are we being a good testimony for Christ?

In the last set of verses (1-6) we studied, we looked at the need for discernment. We need to test the spirits to see if they are from God. I suggest that we all need to test ourselves the same way, because the only way we can reflect agape is to truly belong to Christ, and that, according to Scripture, is something God does, and does with the most clear and strong example possible: Christ [putting the needs of those who were His enemies before His own needs and going to the cross to pay for our sins, because WE could NOT. And that’s a great place to move to the next paragraph.

9-10: That love begins with the Gospel of Jesus Christ for us

It probably has not escaped your notice that John never gets very far from the gospel, and that’s common for all of the writers of the New Testament. Why? Because as I have already stated, the gospel and our new birth because of it is the only reason we can walk in His heavenly kingdom when it finally arrives, and the only way we can live by its laws in the here and now. You may recall that the official theological term for this “already but not yet” phenomenon is given by George Eldon Ladd as “inaugurated eschatology.” For all those that declare the kingdom is here now, they are correct, and it necessitates that we live in accordance with the Laws of our King Jesus in the present. Don’t worry, He also helps us, but that’s a little further into the chapter. Let’s look at this in the order John gave it, the order of inspired Scripture.

9: By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.

Remember that John started with the concept that we should agapao (love) each other. When we love each other with His divine love that puts the interests of others in front of your own no matter what (and Beloved, it is God who defines this in His word, not us by our feelings) , then it is made evident in us, just as John says here, “By this the love of God was manifested in us…” But how does that work?
John tells us. God has sent His Son, the only One that is exactly like the Father, begotten before the beginning of the universe or time ever existed, He sent Him into time and space to rescue us, so that we might live through Him, even though we be all cosmic traitors. In other words, John is uniquely tying this statement to the gospel of Jesus Christ. As I was preparing this study, I began to realize something that has really been in front of me for the 38 years I have been a real and saved believer but that I never realized before. Christ must be central to everything. If He is not, You don’t have Christianity, you have a syncretistic religion that got the children into trouble and sent for 70 years into a Babylonian captivity. As Protestant Christians, we believe in the Scriptures and what they teach about what are known as the 5 Solae of the Reformation. Salvation comes by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, as seen in the Scriptures alone, to the glory of God alone. Mixing anything else with that is, well, frankly dangerous and ill-advised. You can’t just make up stuff or fake stuff and call that worship. Sticking gold glitter in your air-conditioning vents, and then as it blows out calling it the Shekinah glory of God is like that. Or feathers from a down pillow and calling it angel feathers. None of this is biblical. If that really was the Shekinah Glory, there would be people that died on the spot or burst into flames or melted away or something. Only the gospel of Jesus Christ can be central. Anything else is syncretism.

10: 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.

And here it is, the centrality of Christ and His work on our behalf. We did nothing whatsoever to gain this favour with God, but His agapao for us made all of this happen. “Not that we loved God,” says John, but that “He loved us.” So much so that because He knew our lost estate, and so sent His Son, who was willing to obey His Father and literally become the propitiation, or “atoning sacrifice” for our sins, and in the process wiping our record clean with his own and expiating our sins as well. Thus he justified all those who would ever believe in Him before God, and we now stand acquitted of all the crimes we traitors had committed against Him. You can disagree with the doctrine John is referencing if you like, but John said it, and we’ll believe John, and thus believe Christ died for our sins.

It comes as no surprise to the careful reader of Scripture that all of this is connected in an operational way to the gospel of Christ. As we believe the gospel of Christ and begin to walk in its reality, we will find ourselves changing, sometimes slowly, sometimes instantly, into His image, and this will begin to work itself out in our lives. And that’s where we go right to the next paragraph.

11-12: That love should extend from us toward each other as God perfects it in us

John is making this very uncomplicated. Going back to v.8, we can see that he does not express this self-sacrificing love of choice that is not dependent on our feelings at least in some measure are not real believers. You know, I do think it is possible to “backslide.” I have, and more than a few times. However, backsliders will always eventually repent and walk with Christ and express this love. I’m not talking about them. I’m talking about those individuals that say they are Christian and aren’t. The same people that in 1 John 2:19 John tells us, “They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.” These people have seen the truth up close, and personal, and still somehow turn away from it, never truly having encountered it. (Hebrews also mentions this group in chapter 6 of that letter.) One of the ways you can tell who these people are (mostly after the fact) is that there is not expression of this grand agape or the associated fruit of the spirit, or solid moral character. This expression of agape shows the world who we really are, especially when exercised toward others of like precious faith, but your unbelieving neighbour also. Let’s see what John says.

11: Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

Remember the context here: John has just informed the reader of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He became human and became the “propitiation,” or atoning sacrifice for our sins in His role of “Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world” in John the Baptist’s parlance. NOW, let’s read this verse again. “Beloved, if God SO loved us [loved us in this manner], we ALSO should love each other.” What does that mean?
Well, I can’t say I don’t know. Let’s have a look at Ephesians 5. We’ll start in verse 22 and read through verse 30. I can already picture the ladies bristling, but just hear me out. “Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body.”
It is not my intention to exposit this passage, we’re studying 1 John 4:7-14 this evening. The thing is, I think this passage is a great example of that love in operation. Can you imagine what Paul described as proper Christian conduct ever taking place WITHOUT agapao toward each other? Well if you can, you have more imagination than I have. No woman would ever willingly and knowingly submit herself to a man unless the love of God was in operation, and that’s a fact. No man would ever love his own wife enough to give up his life for her without the love of God in operation. You KNOW I’m right. Oh , maybe under storge love, right? But then how do you love the ones that make themselves difficult to love? We are supposed to love everyone, albeit that has different actions for different people. How would we preach the gospel to the lost if we did not have the love of Christ in us burdening us for their souls? How would we go out to the individual that is making himself “unlovely” by his actions, physical or moral? How could an offended spouse ever forgive their unfaithful helpmeet? Beloved, these questions are rhetorical in that the questions themselves make the answer plain. Without the love of God Himself in us, we would have no ability to do any of it. How do I know that? Because even then it’s difficult in the extreme, but is at least possible. We must love each other, especially those of the household of faith.

12: No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.

Read this verse carefully, because there is more than one hermeneutic one could follow. One wrong way of interpreting this is that if we simply “practice” loving each other in a self-sacrificial way, then we will prove ourselves worthy of God and His love. That’s putting the cart before the horse, Beloved. This kind of love flowing out from us is only possible as we have God living in us, which can only happen in those who have truly been born again/from above.
What John is really saying here is that this is a “sign” (for want of a better word) that Christ is dwelling in you when that loving of each other occurs. And when it occurs, God Himself perfects, or completes [Gk., a form of the word telios] that love in us as we engage it and practice it. None of it comes from us, it is yet another gift from the Father as we walk with Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus told us that this love for each other, especially of those of the household of faith, would be how people knew we were followers of Christ. Apparently there are reasons, and that display of agapao should be easier and greater in expression over time. That brings me to my last paragraph.

13-14: We may know WE are believers by God’s Spirit in us

I know that will cause some people to lose some of their assurance they are indeed Christians. Beloved, it shouldn’t. The saint of the Most High should stand up to that scrutiny of self-examination, which by the way, Paul actually commanded us to perform. If the Holy Spirit is doing His work of conviction in you properly (and He is), you should have an increased knowledge of your own sinfulness, and that might be because God has deemed it is time for you to deal with something specific. The fact that you are even worried about it is itself evidence that the Holy Spirit is inside you and working. Be assured (and John will tell us this in 5:13 of this letter) that we may KNOW (with absolute knowledge) that we have eternal life, not simply hope guess, pray, or wonder. We may KNOW it. Let’s see what John says.

13: By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.

We can know that we are in Christ, saved, born again/from above, redeemed, regenerated, justified, whatever biblical word you want to use to say we are saved, and that we remain (abide synonym) in Him and that He is in us because He has [lit.] “His Spirit He has given us.” (The word “of” in Greek is not used in the fashion that the translators have used it in the NASB.) If we weren’t His, He wouldn’t have given us His Holy Spirit. But He has, and it’s because of that agape He had for us that caused Him to become a man and become the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Because He has purchased us by paying our bail (See Heb. 7:22, “guarantee”), we now belong to Him. Beloved, that should melt our hearts into doxology and worship.

14: We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

Also remember John started this letter by telling us that he was an eyewitness to the events that made the gospel possible, that he saw, he touched, his hands handled things that concerned the Word of Life, that is Christ, the Lord Jesus. What exactly did John see and what is he giving witness (testifying) about?
Only that which we have been saying for a long time: That God the Father has sent God the Son to be the Savior of the world. In all of this, John is remaining centered on the Gospel, or “great news” of Jesus Christ dying for the sins of us all and rising from the grave to show that it had truly been completed! Tetelestai!

The bottom line here is that we may be assured by our own behaviour or progress in it that we are in fact a child of God. Now that can run into issues, because there is a category of people who think they are Christians but really aren’t, and they can be difficult to see sometimes. They especially have real difficulty seeing themselves, and are usually both vehement and vicious in defending their “Christianity.” Please not the use of the quotes indicating that word is being used in a non-acceptable way according to the definition and by Scripture.

What John is telling us here is that WE are to be different. WE are to reflect that love of God, the love of self-deprecation and self-sacrifice, the love that involves choice and is not dependent on emotionalism. We must walk with Christ and allow that changed character to be seen, not just given lip service in front of other believers or the world.

That’s what I saw in the chapter.