Love is a topic with which our culture is fascinated. The concept of free love dominated the 60s and 70s. Songs longing for love filled the 80s and 90s. The struggle to define what love is in the battle over the sexual revolution has dominated the past two decades. The church should be where love can be clearly defined and demonstrated. Still, it is often a place where bitterness, wrath, and anger are found in abundance. One song states that all we need is love, while a quick observation of the world demonstrates the fallacy of that thinking. Disney taught us as children that we would one day fall in love and live happily ever after. Yet, adulthood quickly revealed the ignorance of that philosophy. So, what in the world is love, and how do the church and how do Christians rightly demonstrate it? John returns to this topic in today’s text, 1 John 4:7-21.
As we work through the book of 1 John, you may notice a unique writing pattern that John employs. He circles three topics and drives deeper every time he hits them like a corkscrew spinning and driving deeper into the cork. These three topics are the moral test, which is righteousness; the social test, which is love; and the doctrinal test, which is the test of truth of belief in the Lord Jesus Christ as God incarnate.
In this text, John returns to the commandment to love one another. This is the third time he approaches this social test of life to determine if you are an authentic Christian and if we are a faithful church. The first time John addresses this concept was found in 1 John 2, where John reminds us that loving one another is a command we should obey out of compulsion. The second time John addresses this topic is found in 1 John 3, where he reminds us that we should love one another by action, not words. Up to this point, love for others has been seen as a Christian duty. We begin this new section in which we will be challenged to love one another because of God’s love and nature. (Note especially verses 7-8).
In our text today, John states that if we love one another, we demonstrate that we are Christians. Those who love are Christians. But if this is the case, how can John state what he states? If love comes from God, how can unregenerate people demonstrate love the way they do? As we saw headlines coming out of Florida following Hurricane Ian, stories of heroism and love for people quickly emerged. How can this be possible if love is from God and some of these people are obviously unregenerate? The commentator Marshall notes, “A theological answer to the question would be phrased in terms of the doctrines of creation and common grace. It is because men are created in the image of God, an image which has been defaced but not destroyed by the fall, but they still have the capacity to love.”
Yet, this should give the believer a distinct advantage, for he has been made complete in Christ. He has not only common grace (grace shown to all mankind) but particular grace (saving grace granted to the believer at salvation). And so we have the Spirit of God in us. This is why John states that we ought to love one another. And as we demonstrate this love of God, we show that we are born of God. If your life is not marked by love for others but is instead marked by bitterness, anger, and meanness, then you frankly ought to question whether you are indeed born of God. We see once again that John is a very black-and-white person. He states that the one who does not love does not know God.
John then makes the most significant statement about love in the entire epistle at the end of verse 8, “God is love.” What does it mean that God is love? Notice John did not state that God is loving. He says that God is love (ο θεος αγαπη εστιν). Love flows from or out of God and has God as its spring or source. There can be no explanation or definition of true love, which does not start from God’s love. Yet, this concept is constantly misunderstood. Humanity tends to impose on God their conception of love. They ask questions like, “How can a loving God send anyone to Hell?” and make statements like, “I could never believe in a God who would keep a man from loving someone in a mutual relationship, even if it is with another man.” But these statements demonstrate a false view of love and project these views on God. People constantly impose on God a human view of love, but he transcends any such human limitations.
As a result, any proper definition of love must come from a proper understanding of God. Your view of God will dictate your view of life. With this in mind, we must note that the statement cannot be reversed. It is not a mutually equal statement. God is love, but love is not God. Love is not an all-encompassing statement of God. We see in Scripture that God is holy (1 Peter 1:16), God is righteous (Is. 45:21), and so on, with all of who God is. In short, God is the sum of all of his attributes. God is loving, and God is just. God is holy, and God is merciful. God’s attributes must work in concert with one another. When we state that God is love, it means that God defines and is the source of all love. Next week we will consider some important practical ramifications of this reality.