Many see this text as the text of New Testament theology. For in this text we read the phrase ‘God is love’ not once but twice (in verse 8 and 16). And from this phrase whole theologies are developed. In short, the thought goes, ‘If we are to sum up what the New Testament says about God, then we would simply say God is love.’ Then from this assertion, many have begun to flesh out what they believe. ‘Because God is love we know that the Lord will not send anyone to eternal punishment, maybe punishment, but not eternal punishment.’ ‘Because God is love we should not speak against sin, we should not speak against divorce, against homosexual marriage, or any other personal preference.’ ‘Indeed, because God is love He would want me to do what makes me happy.’ Or, ‘Because God is love there is no need for people to really believe in Jesus, for all will go to heaven.’ ‘Because God is love we need to see the good in all the religions and not hold Christianity as superior, or any more true.’ So much could be said about a theological system emphasizes the love of God over everything else.

I hope it is clear this morning that we want to avoid this approach to theology. I hope we realize the danger in simply choosing one verse and hanging all our theology on it. Yet, we must acknowledge that indeed the text does tell us that God is love. We cannot simply assert that God is not love. To do this would not only be unfaithful to this text, but it would ignore the glorious New Testament witness to the great love of God. Thus, instead of simply dismissing or downplaying the notion that God is love, we need to labor in understanding exactly what John is trying to teach us concerning God and His love in this text. In considering this, I think we can identify at least four truths concerning God and His love from our text this morning.

First, John is teaching us that our love for one another is rooted in and motivated by the love of God.
This theme is a theme that runs throughout the letter of 1 John. We can look back to 2:9-11, where John makes the statement that loving our brother gives evidence that we are abiding in the light, as we looked at a few weeks ago. Also, in 3:11-18, John states that those who truly love their brothers are the ones who have eternal life and have God’s love abiding in them. Thus, the emphasis on loving our brother is not new for this letter.

Yet, here John makes a clear connection between loving God and loving one another. John has said that you cannot love God and love the world and that you cannot hate your brother and be in the light, here the point is that you cannot claim to love God and not love your brother. Look at some of his comments with me that run throughout our text. First, v. 7-8: Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. Thus, we see the clear connection between our love for one another and the love of God. John is saying, ‘Because God is love, i.e. everything He does is loving, we should love one another.’ Again, we must be careful, for John is not saying that all we have to do to be born of God is to love. He has made it clear in the letter that Christianity cannot be reduced to simply loving. Yet, he is saying that if we are not loving one another, then we are not giving evidence that we have been born of God, for God is love and, as Christ taught us, God’s people will be characterized by their love for one another.

Look now at verses 11-12: Beloved, if God so loved us (we will clarify this in a moment) we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. Verse 11 states clearly our first point. We are to love one another because God has first loved us. Yet, in studying this text this week, verse 12 was difficult to me at first. What is John getting at with the phrase ‘no one has ever seen God’? And what does he mean when he says that God’s love is perfected in us when we love one another?

I think some clarity is found in verses 19-21. We will get to the verses we have skipped, but look with me at 19-21. John writes, We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this is the commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. Verse 20 helps us see what John is saying in verse 12. John tells us here that to claim to love God who we have not seen is crazy if we cannot love our brother who we can see. The harder of the two actions to do is to love the one that we have not seen. We can see our brother, we can meet his needs, we can demonstrate our love for him. So, if we do not love our brother who we can see, how can we claim to love God who we cannot see? This is why John makes the statement in verse 12 that no one has seen God. Again, as we have seen before John is strong with his language. The one who claims to love God and does not love his brother is a liar. Just as the one who claims to know God and yet walks in darkness is a liar. John is making the line in the sand very clear. This is why we stress Church membership and Church involvement. As Derek Webb makes so clear in his song about the Church when he writes, “I haven’t come for only you, but for my people to pursue, you cannot care for me with not regard for her, if you love me you will the church.”¹ This is the overarching theme of this text. John is making clear that our love for the church of God, our love for the Bride of Christ, our love for one another is rooted in and motivated by the love of God.

So, then how is God’s love perfected in us as John writes in verse 12. I think what he is saying is that as God’s love for us spills over into our love for one another, His love is being perfected in us. Thus, it is his love for us that motivates us to love each other. Well, then, we could ask, ‘How has God loved us?’ which leads to our second truth.

Second, God’s love for us is clearly evidenced in the person and work of Jesus Christ
Look at verses 9-10 with me: 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. 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. If we are ever wondering to what extent our God loves us we simply need to consider Christ. We need to ponder the Incarnation, that the Almighty maker of heaven and earth, took on flesh and came to dwell in our sin infested world. Not only that, but he lived a perfect life, doing all that Adam and his descendents had failed to do. And then, as if that was not enough, he climbed the hill of Calvary and bore the weight of the wrath of God in our stead. And he was crushed on that cross and as the text says, the Almighty Son of God breathed his last. Yet, the story does not conclude there. No, three days later there was glory in the garden tomb. Three days later Christ arose from the dead, defeating death, and then ascended to the right hand of the throne of God.

Why has God Almighty done such an act? In order to redeem for Himself a people from all tongues, and tribes, and nations, to the praise and adoration of His glorious grace. Indeed, He has done it to manifest His love. He has done it that we might live through His Son. He has done it that He might forgive our sins in such a way as not to compromise His holiness or His justice. Indeed, is this not what John means when he speaks of Christ as the ‘propitiation for our sins?’ Oh, ‘what wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of bliss to bear the dreadful curse for my soul!’

People who say that because God is love, we need not share the gospel or believe that Christ is the only way for salvation, simply make a mockery of the love of God. Why? Because they are making a mockery of the cross, the very manifestation of God’s love. If God’s holiness and justice and wrath against sin did not demand a payment, then why would God allow His only Son to die? If God is only love, then the cross makes not sense. Yet, the amazing truth about the fact that God is love, is that in His love He is never compromising on His holiness and His justice and His grace. This is what we see demonstrated at the cross. May we indeed not marvel at the truth that God is love, and that His love has been manifested in the redeeming work of Christ our Lord?

And now look again at verse 11: Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. Could John be any clearer? Brothers and Sisters, if we claim to love God who has freely given us His Son, how can we not in turn love one another? I challenge you as I have done before in teaching this book, if you are struggling with loving a brother or sister in Christ, if you are struggling with self-sacrificially giving of your time and resources so that other believers in need may benefit, if you are wondering why should you commit and be involved in the local Church, consider the cross! I know it can be difficult, I know we can come up with every excuse and reason in the world, but we cannot in light of the cross. Brothers and sisters, put your pride away, crucify the self, make war on your sin, that you might indeed love as God has loved.

Third, our love for God, as evidenced by our love for another, gives us assurance that we are abiding in Him
Look at verses 13-18: By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect loves casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

Now John says a lot in this section. Much of this he has written before in his letter, such as the fact that we know we abide in God because of the Spirit and because we confess that Jesus is the Son of God. So, how is all this connected with his thoughts on love?

Let me run through his logic and see if this helps: Our love for one another is evidence of our love for God. We see this throughout our text. Our love for God, as seen by our love for one another, is our evidence that we are abiding in God and he in us. This evidence, along with the evidence of the indwelling of the Spirit and the evidence of our confession that Jesus is the Son of God, bears witness that we are abiding in God and that He is abiding in us. Since we are abiding in God and He is abiding in us, we have no fear of the coming judgment. Thus, perfect love, or the love of God in us being made manifest in our love for one another, drives out fear. As God’s love, which has been manifest in Christ, indwells us and spills over into our love for one another, we have assurance and do not fear the coming judgment. Or we could say it this way: God’s love for us, as seen in Christ, produces our love for Him, as seen in our love for one another, which drives out our fear of judgment.

Again, in this third point we see John’s purpose of wanting to assure this church that they are indeed abiding in Christ, and do not need to listen to or follow the teaching of those who have left (see also 2:10 and 3:23-24). And again, his assurance to them can be great assurance for us. As we examine our hearts and lives and find true love for our brothers and sisters in Christ, we should be assured that indeed we are abiding in Him and He in us, for only His love could produce such love in our hearts.

Fourth, and finally, we love God and one another by obeying His commands
This is what John teaches us in 5:1-4a: Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whomever has been born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world.

Verse 1 here repeats our first point. The language John uses could be translated ‘Everyone who the loves the Beggeter, or the One who begets, loves the ones who have been begotten.’ Again, such a great connection between our love for God and our love for one another.

In verses 2-4a, John gives us more instruction as to how we are to know that we are loving the children of God. His answer is simply: by obeying the commands of the Lord. We love God and one another by obeying the commands of God, one of the commands even being to love one another. Make no mistake about it, the Church and the world has struggled with this definition of love. There is a lie in the culture’s dealing with premarital sex that says if you truly love someone it is ok to have sex with them outside of marriage. This is a lie. True love obeys the commands of the Lord. There is often a lie behind divorce that says surely God wants me to be happy. The problem with this is not that God never wants to make us happy. No the problem is the realization that true happiness is found in being obedient to the commands of the Lord, even when they are difficult. There is a lie in the church over the issues of discipline and accountability. The lie goes like this: surely it is not a loving thing to practice church discipline or to hold each other accountable to our confession. Yet, how can we claim to love each other when we allow open, unrepentant sin to run rampant in our lives? This is not love, for love does not pave the road to hell in order to make it an easy ride. No, love fights for truth. True love labors to obey the commands of the Lord. For it will always be more dangerous and more unloving to disobey the commands of the Lord than it is to obey them.

Application
Thus, the call of our text this morning is to labor to self-sacrificially love one another by obeying the commands of the Lord. Let Christ and his sacrificial death on the cross be our example and motivation. If we lack love for our brothers and sisters and Christ, may we ask God to remind us of his love for us as evidenced in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And as God pours his love into our hearts and minds, and it begins to spill over in sacrificial love for the Body of Christ, may we have great assurance and great expectancy at the coming of the Lord.

Thus, as we come to the table this morning, may we remember the cross. John Stott writes in his commentary on 1 John: “No one who has been to the cross and seen God’s immeasurable and unmerited love displayed there can go back to a life of selfishness.” As we come to the table today, may we be reminded of God’s great love for us in Christ, and may we long to imitate that love to each other.

¹ John Stott, The Letters of John, (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdman's Publishing Company, 1999), 166.

LOVING THE FATHER BY LOVING HIS CHILDREN