Our Savior Lutheran Church

Open It

1. Which do you think is a more powerful motivator—love, fear, or hate? Why?

2. What popular figure alive today or from history used hate to motivate people?

3. When have you been motivated by love?

Explore It

So far John has presented two rounds of tests that help establish the authenticity of a believer. He has twice presented the three tests in order: the test of obedience (2:3-6; 2:28-3:10), the test of love (2:7-11; 3:11-18), and the test of belief (2:18-27; 4:1-6). With each new presentation, he has both elaborated and deepened the requirements of the test. Along with the tests themselves, he has put forward a call for each true believer to find assurance to move forward in the application of these truths to their lives.

John is now ready to present the third round of the tests. This time the order is different and the strategy is altered. Following the command with the “aside” at 3:23 (“to believe … and to love”), John presented the second test of belief in 4:1-6. Now, with a new round of tests, instead of beginning again with the test of obedience, he quickly turned to the test of love (4:7-11) as commanded in 3:23. John then presented a combination of tests of love and belief (4:12-21) before combining all three tests at the beginning of chapter 5. The switch in order underscores the greatest commandment: to love.

A CONCLUDING CALL TO LOVE (4:7-12)

This is perhaps the most loved and best known portion of John’s letter. It is a glorious statement about agape love, but its order is somewhat difficult to follow. However, the phrase “love one another” in its various forms holds the passage together. It is used as an appeal (vv.7-10), as an obligation (v.11), and finally as the substance of the test of true relationship with God (v.12).

4. What were the readers of 1 John encouraged to do? (4:7)

John began his concluding call to love with a tender but urgent appeal. He abruptly ended his former discussion and stated “Dear friends” (literally, “beloved”), “let us love one another” (v.7). the present tense of this appeal reflects the call to a continual mutual love.

5. What is the relationship between loving and knowing God? (4:7-8)

The difference between this and John’s original call to mutual love (3:11, 23) is the basis he gave for such an appeal. Here he listed two reasons for carrying out this call. First, God is the source and origin of love. John said it this way, “For love comes from God” (v.7b). If God is the source of real love, then all who exemplify love in their lives must have gotten it from God. Thus, love becomes a test of a person’s relationship with God: “Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God” (v.7c).

The opposite is also true. The person who does not have a lifestyle of love proves he or she does not know God. The change of tense in the verb know is important. In verse 7c it is present, signifying a relationship that is both intimate and continuing. The tense in verse 8a is not present, but aorist (past). It underscores the reality that the unloving person has never known God. Regardless of what a person says, if love is not the controlling principle of his or her life, he or she has never known the source of love: God Himself.

Keep in mind what John meant when he used the term know in its various forms. He usually referred to an intimate relationship with God. Many people know a lot about God, but they don’t know Him personally. Many people study a lot of books and memorize a lot of verses about God, but they spend little or no time with God. Christianity is not about religious knowledge; it is about an intimate, abiding relationship.

It is important to remember that the heresy invading the churches in and around Ephesus claimed much authority due to their special gnosis or knowledge. The statement that they “do not know God” would not only be true, but would be quite offensive to such an arrogant group of false teachers.

John gave his second reason or basis for his appeal to love one another in the brief phrase at the end of verse 8: “God is love.” This is one of the most profound sentences in the entire Bible. Perhaps its fullest meaning could never be completely explained. It reveals a part of the character of God. The construction of the Greek does not completely equate love with God. In other words, you couldn’t say, “love is God.” Love does not completely describe God, but God completely defines love. He is love. His nature is loving, and love can never be absent from His being or any of His actions.

6. How did God show His love? (4:9)

In verses 9-10 John told how we know what God’s love is and how great that love is. We know what it is because it was shown or revealed to us in the sending of Jesus (v.9a). Love was first seen in Jesus’ self-sacrifice (3:16); now it is seen in God’s sending of His Son.

7. Why did God send His Son? (4:9)

The greatness of this love is described by John in four ways. First, it is seen in the value of God’s gift (v.9b). Not only was the gift in the person of Jesus, God’s Son, but He was His “one and only” (monogenes) Son. His uniqueness made the gift valuable. Second, the greatness of the gift is seen in the purpose of the Son’s mission: “That we might live through him” (v.9c). Third, it is seen in the condition of the recipients of His love. We were not worthy and were completely undeserving (“not that we loved God,” v.10a); yet, His love was great enough that He still sent His Son for us.

8. What is love? (4:10)

Fourth, it is seen in the manner in which the gift ultimately had to be given: “As an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (v.10b). In order for us to “live through him,” he not only had to come, but He had to die. This truly is a “great” love.

9. Why should Christians love one another? (4:11)

After giving the appeal to love and reflecting on the love of God, John now returned to the appeal by way of our obligation. The call to love one another is now mentioned as a factual obligation. The key word is “ought” (Greek opheilomen, used in 2:6; 3:16). It is a strong word describing a moral obligation. After seeing the love of God in the gift of Christ, it is not that we “ought” to love others in the sense that we “should” do it. It is that we are bound and obligated to love others in the same self-sacrificing way.

10. What is the result of loving one another? (4:12)

John abruptly made a big statement: “No one has ever seen God.” The truth of this statement is revealed throughout the Bible.

John went on to make an even more incredible statement. He said that that invisible God “lives in us” if we love one another. Love is not the condition for which god is waiting to come to us. If God loves in you, the natural outcome is love for others. Visible love is the test for the presence of the invisible God. Our loving attitude, and action, are evidence that we pass the test.

John went one step further before he ended this magnificent paragraph. Reciprocal Christian love is not only evidence of God’s abiding presence, but John says it is evidence that God’s love is being completed in us. “In us” can mean in each individual believer or in mutual Christian relationships. Both are probably true. In some indescribable manner, God is making His love perfect in us as we reflect His love to others. His love is brought to its proper end in us when we are busy loving others.

11. How can believers know that they live in God and God lives in them? (4:13)

The two concluding statements in verse 12 are now picked up and elaborated in the following section. While combining the test of belief and love, John discussed further the indwelling of God (vv. 13-16) and the perfecting of God’s love within the true believer (vv.17-21).

Three different times in this paragraph John mentioned the mutual indwelling of the true believer and God (vv.13, 15, 16). Each time he gave the evidence of this mutual indwelling. We can check on ourselves by looking for these three kinds of evidence.

The first statement of God’s indwelling occurs in verse 13 and the evidence is “because he has given us his Spirit.” How is this evidence? We can’t see His Spirit, but we can see the evidence or fruit of His Spirit. In fact, the following two evidences (in vv. 15-16) are built upon this one. We cannot believe in Christ or love one another unless the Spirit empowers us to do so (see 1 Cor. 12:3; Gal. 5:22; 1 John 3:23-24; 4:1-3). If a person has confessed Christ and loves other people, then the Spirit is in him. And if the Spirit is in him, then God also is indwelling him. Furthermore, the Spirit Himself will bear witness to us that we belong to him (Romans 8:16).

12. What did John testify concerning? (4:14)

In verse 14 John gave the apostolic testimony to the Son’s saving mission. The “we” refers to John and the other apostles, demonstrating how faith in Christ is based on the testimony of firsthand witnesses of Christ. Their testimony is that the world is in need of salvation, the Son came as the Savior, and the Father sent Him.

The grounds of John’s three tests are found in this concise statement of the gospel. He has not arbitrarily chosen the tests. As John Stott writes, “Within this statement of the gospel all three of the apostle’s tests are implicitly contained, the doctrinal (it was his Son himself whom the Father sent), the social (God’s love seen in the sending of his Son, 9-10, 16, obligates us to love each other), and the ethical (if Christ came to be our Savior, we must forsake the sins from which he came to save us)” (John Stott, The Letters of John).

13. What happens when we acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God? (4:15)

The test of assurance is now given. It is the doctrinal test. The statement, “If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God,” is the condition. To “acknowledge” means a public confession (as in 4:2). This, however, does not simply mean to recite the phrase. It is to say what a person truly believes and has accepted as true. The aorist tense refers to a single and decisive act. The only way a person can understand and have the courage to make the confession is if the Spirit prompts him to do so (4:2). Therefore, this is a valid and necessary test for the assurance that “God lives in him and he in God.”

14. Why is love important? (4:16-17)

John again gave his testimony in verse 16 before he brought the test of true life. John testified that he knew and relied on God’s love. But, since “God is love,” the evidence that a person is in God and God in him is the character of God being lived out in his or her life. Loving attitudes and actions as well as right beliefs prove that God is living in a person.

15. How is love made complete? (4:17)

John ended verse 12 with the affirmation that if we love one another, God dwells in us and His love is perfected in us. The idea of God’s indwelling was expanded in verses 13-16. Now John elaborated on the idea of the perfecting of love. Previously it was God’s love that was the topic, here it is our love that is perfected (v.17). John described the results of our perfected love: confidence in the day of judgment (vv.17b-18) and love for other Christians (vv.19-21).

First, perfect love results in confidence when Christ returns in judgment. The word confidence (parresia) was previously used to describe the unshakable confidence we should have at Christ’s Second Coming (2:28) and during our prayers (3:21). Here it is used to explain the inner assurance of the true believer to face the judgment. There can be confidence because the true believer is in the same position as Christ (“like him,” v.17c), both a child of God and the object of His love. This confidence is a sign that our love is perfected.

16. What does perfect love do? Why? (4:18)

John stated this same truth negatively in verse 18. Whereas true love toward God (due to a true relationship with God) produces confidence, a lack of love (due to a lack of relationship) produces fear. Fear or terror is the opposite of confidence. They are mutually exclusive. As John stated, “perfect love drives out fear.” Fear is present when there is no saving relationship because the judgment will result in punishment. Love is perfected when there is no trace of fear at all.

17. Why should we love? (4:19)

Second, perfected love results in love for others (vv.19-21). God “first loved us” (v.19). Because of that, we love as well. God takes the initiative. We respond to His love not only in our heads but in our hearts and with our hands.

18. What is the relationship between loving God and loving one’s brother? (4:20-21)

Genuine Christian love is not only expressed toward God, but it goes out to our brothers as well. While perfect love casts out fear, it also dispels hatred. As John stated earlier, a person cannot be in the light and hate his brother (2:9); neither can he claim to love God and hate his brother (4:20). That person “is a liar.”

John concluded by giving two reason why love for God results in love for others. First, it is a logical conclusion. If we can’t love the people we see, then it is illogical to think we could love God whom we can’t see. If we have God’s love in us, then we will naturally give it to those closest to us. Second, it is a matter of obedience. If God’s love is in us, then we will obey His commands (2:5). Jesus made that command clear – that we are to love God and our neighbor. We cannot separate the duties or be exclusive with our love.

Get It

19. How can we demonstrate our love for God?

20. What example has Jesus set for us to follow?

21. How should God’s love motivate you to love others?

22. How do you know that God lives in you?

23. What does it mean to live in God?

24. Why is it be easier to love God than other Christians?

25. When you have difficulty loving other believers, what is it that makes it difficult?

26. How can we demonstrate our love for others?

27. What are you afraid of?

28. How can we overcome our fears?

29. How does love drive out fear?

Apply It

30. Who is someone that you have a difficult time getting along with that you need to ask God to help you love this week?

31. What fear will you ask God to help you overcome?

32. What specific steps will you take this week to demonstrate your love for another believer