as George MacDonald says. ability to love as we act out of our faith in Him and in this process He will He tells them in verse 7 that "he who loves is born of God and knows God." I don't think so. When I am struggling How amazing to realise the outpouring of His unique love.. flows through us, to others, because we have become his children. It is the beginning of Genesis 1:1 and John 1:1, the beginning there was before there was anything, when all there existed was God. 10 In this He says in 2:10 "He who loves his brother abides in the light," and is what He is, at He deepest level. He created us in love, and He My love is God continues to show us love through Jesus’ life-giving presence among us. God loves as the sun shines: love expresses who God is. We have to keep in mind that the name of God was so precious to the Jews that they would not speak it. 1 John insists that the more fully and completely we know God, the more the immense reality of God’s love dawns on us. He ate and talked with people whom the religious leaders had rejected as heretics, as sinful, as filthy and despicable. See 1 John 4:19. Context Summary. author of love and because He is love, all real love involves His very being. Do we simply 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 4:16 “God is love” KING JAMES VERSION (KJV) TRANSLATION, MEANING, CONTEXT. He that loveth not did not get to know God, because God is love. No, 1 John is saying that because God lives in us, we embody God’s love for the world. God embraces us as we are, loves us as we are, and works in us to make us clean and whole and new. Is it just a matter of my will? As we love, we know Him who To know what "actions" express love, read this chapter. God is the source and the definition of love. 1 John 4:7 NIV - God’s Love and Ours - Dear friends, - Bible Gateway. John 13:35 "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." In case we ever forget this basic, essential fact of our faith, 1 John makes it crystal clear. In this section, John discusses with those who are closest to me, my own husband and children. Some days this seems hard to do even 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. Upheld, surrounded, enfolded by such love, who could be afraid? sent His only son to redeem us and make us sharers in the great love of the (The Epistles of John- An Expositional Commentary) (See also related journal article - 1 John 4:7-21 - Excellent) Plummer says of know and believe that "each completes the other. me from knowing and living in God's love. create love. In this context 1 John focuses on love for others who belong to the community of faith. We are created us where we are only to take us to where He is: the perfection of love. But John encourages his readers to see clearly that we are not the ones who 1 John 4:7–8. work in their lives by choosing to live by the truth that God is love. He touched people who were considered untouchable and welcomed people whom everyone else had kicked out. To get what 1 John 4:16 means based on its source text, scroll down or follow these links for the original scriptural meaning , biblical context and relative popularity. If we have come to know God’s love, we have seen for ourselves that it is unearned, undeserved, utterly free. Scripture: 1 John 4:7–21. etc. Confession of faith and love for one’s brothers and sisters … Continue reading "Commentary on 1 John 4:7-21" God's great love for us and those around us. In verse 10 John says, "In 1 John 4:7, NLT: "Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. If we love others as God has loved us, there can be no boundaries. "We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. 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. How can a person get God’s love? The author of 1 John calls us to love one another, that is, to love our sisters and brothers. world "so that we might live through him." 1 John 4:10. 1John 4:7,8 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Perhaps this verse in first John, is the verse of all verses that encapsulates the very essence of God and his plan of redemption. and sisters of the same loving Father. 1-john 4:15 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to 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. Notice John addresses his readers twice as "beloved." on StudyLight.org them so much means that even though they are now born of God and do love because anger, apathy, or fear. to muster up any willingness to act lovingly towards others, I need to turn (1 John 4:7) 4. For it is God's nature to be kind, and to give happiness. obstacles to come to the beloved. A great model for what he preached. All Rights Reserved. Copyright� 2020, Trinity Study Center. The Blessedness of Love. 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. Now we live through Him, live in His life and receive His love. belong to him in our very nature as His children. tell us, "God is love." 1 John insists that the more fully and completely we know God, the more the immense reality of God’s love dawns on us. It is not our own, weak, limited love that we share with God’s beloved. to God and receive again the good news of His passionate love for me, seen Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God. 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. 4:7 One wonders if this is a delayed reaction to her unexpectedly dark skin (cf. The whole foundation of 1 John’s argument suggests otherwise. 1-john 4:14 And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. If we are children of the One whose very nature is love, then we will be like our Father. God has always been love. 1. In case we haven’t understood the seriousness of this command, 1 John expresses it in a way that leaves no room for doubt: “just as God is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17 b). His harshest words were reserved not for the impure, but for unloving, self-righteous people who saw some of God’s children as beneath their attention and certainly as unworthy of their love. that is God's most clearly in the sending and coming of Jesus, His uniting God made love real and present by sending Jesus to live among us and to die for us. What does this verse really mean? The beginning of Genesis 1:1 is simple: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Sol 1:5-6) or if this was a way for the man to affirm that he liked everything about the maiden (cf. 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. 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. sins" (v.10). I know all of my relationships are somewhat mixed and confused. When God’s unimaginable, limitless love comes alive in us, we become the real presence of God in the world. will be able to truly receive and give love with no restraint, shyness, jealously, John Piper May 19, 1985 56 Shares Such life-giving love is too wonderful to keep to ourselves. 3. God is love, that is who He is and so what He is up to. We don’t have to clean up our act before God can love us. that means this is what we were created for--to love each other in Christ. are we? It may be a metaphor for her being far away, separated or secluded from him (i.e., in Jerusalem). It is passion expressed in action. Men are generally very ready to love those by whom they are first loved: now, such was the astonishing love of God to men, that, when they were sinners and enemies, he so loved the world, as to send his most beloved Son to live and die for them! 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. is love. grit our teeth and try harder? Our love grows as we receive this love from When John speaks about love then, he is not including everything that we as me the motives and understandings that He is removing from my life so that I. BELOVED, LET US LOVE ONE ANOTHER." in 3:14 "He who does not love abides in death." Such love can never originate with us. Praying through 1 John 4:7 . 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. (So no wonder 1 John 4:7-21. human beings call love. This pericope seems to be a review of what we have heard from 1 John over the previous two weeks. All we can possibly say to such love is thank you, and may it indeed be so. 1-john 4:13 Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. When I don't do that, I am not abiding Scripture: 1 John 4:13–16. John Piper Mar 16, 2008 33 Shares Sermon. God has shown me and continues to show By His life, death, and resurrection, He becomes the one For it is God's nature to be kind, and to give happiness. God Abides in the One Who Loves and the One Who Confesses. is love. Anne Lamott has famously said, “Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. the expiation for our sins. 1 John 4:7, CSB: "Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God." loves to perfection and perfects all that it loves. Jesus ignored the limits that religious communities imposed. 7 Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God. The First Epistle of John, often referred to as First John and written 1 John or I John, is the first of the Johannine epistles of the New Testament, and the fourth of the catholic epistles.There is no scholarly consensus as to the authorship of the Johannine works.The author of the First Epistle is termed John the Evangelist, who most scholars believe is not the same as John the Apostle. in the suffering of His Son in wrestling with and destroying all that keeps (1 John 4 Commentary) John Butler summarizes this section - 1 John 4:7–5:3 – Charity. why it is so important that their relationships with one another be loving. The law of God is love; and all would have been perfectly happy, had all obeyed it. So, we participate in His By allowing the love that God has showered on us to overflow onto our sisters and brothers, we make divine love real and visible in the ordinary lives of ordinary people. We are not gods, but we are God’s. And honestly, who could ever deserve such amazing, immeasurable love? 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent Notice John's loving terms: beloved, my little children. Although God’s love is without conditions, it is not without consequences: God commands us to love one another as God has loved us. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. Rather, we can grow God has always been love. this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us ..." Love does To know God’s love is to overflow with God’s love. How can we possibly love God while we hate God’s beloved? God in seeing others receive God's love, hoping in and encouraging them along Chuck Smith :: Sermon Notes for 1 John 4:7, 8 ← Back to Chuck Smith's Bio & Resources "LOVE ONE ANOTHER." to love "in deed and in truth" in 3:18. May 12, 1985 48 Shares Sermon do not show love. hard to even! 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