The Love of God

November 2, 2025|The Love of God|1 John 4:7-12

JD Cutler

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Over the last 11 weeks we have covered many themes throughout the book of 1st John, but it would be hard to argue that one of the central themes of John’s letter is not the idea of love.

Throughout this little book the Apostle uses the word love some 46 times, not counting his use of beloved. It is a theme sprinkled through this letter. This week we come to the most concentrated portion of his letter concerning love. Of the 46 times John uses the word love, 27 of those times are found within chapter 4 verses 7-21.

It is his final and fullest treatment of love. We will be looking at this chapter over the next two weeks, beginning with the first 5 verses this morning. As we have said many times, John often returns to themes he has previously addressed. Much of what he says in our verses this morning are things that he has already mentioned, but far from being simply repetitive or redundant, it highlights the importance of the topic of love in answering the question, what does genuine Christianity look like.

Which is the very heart of 1st John as we have said repeatedly.

By way of introduction, please bear with me as I share the previous 9 statements the apostle has made that find their way in some form or another into our text this morning.

The statement ‘but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected’ appears in chapter 2 verse 5.

The statement ‘whoever loves his brother abides in the light’ appears in chapter 2 verse 10.

The statement ‘see what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are’ appears in chapter 3 verse 1

The statement ‘by this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil…whoever does not love his brother.’ appears in chapter 3 verse 10.

The statement ‘for this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, the we should love one another’ appears in chapter 3 verse 11.

The statement ‘We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death’ appears in chapter 3 verse 14.

The statement ‘By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers’ appears in chapter 3 verse 16.

The statement ‘Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth’ appears in chapter 3 verse 18.

The statement ‘ And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us’ appears in chapter 3 verse 23.

In these 15 verses we are looking at over the next two weeks, John is going to synthesize what he has been sprinkling in throughout this letter. From this symphonic climax on the topic of love we are going to look at four statements that will prayerfully help us find clarity on the importance of love, the definition of love, as well as why it’s presence is a necessary evidence that someone belongs to God.

If you haven’t already, please open your bibles to 1 John chapter 4 at verse 7.

I will remind you that the primary threat to the churches that John writes to is the gnostic influence of false teachers and false professors of those claiming to belong to Christ. Now, Gnostics rightly confessed that God was spirit and God was light, but they did not associate love with God because love finds its expression in actual, realized, and material ways. For them anything material was inherently evil and corrupted, spiritual things were all that mattered. They separated the physical from the spiritual completely. We still hear these kind of thoughts today when people say they are spiritual, but not religious. You ever heard that?

They claim to believe in a higher power but it doesn’t affect their lives in any real, tangible, observable ways. They may even say they love God and love others, but if we examine their life, there is very little, if any, evidence of that love. John has already identified love as evidence that someone belongs to God, that someone has passed out of death into life, as well as plainly stated that genuine love is not in word or talk but in deed and in truth. We continue that conversation this morning as John identifies the source of love, defines and describes it, and stresses once again the necessity of genuine love as evidence of belonging to God.

Let’s pick up in verse 7 this morning and read through verse 12 together.

1 John 4:7–12 ESV

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 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. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

From these verses, the first of four statements I want to share with you is…

I. THE DIVINITY OF LOVE

The first area John addresses is why love is so central to the identity of someone who belongs to God. Beloved, John says, speaking as someone who genuinely loves those he is writing to, encourages them to in turn love one another.

Why? Because love is from God.

The word ‘for’ here serves as a conjunction that introduces causation.

Why should Christians love one another? Because God is love and those who have been born of God, will exhibit characteristics consistent with who God is. Those who know God, who have been born of God have experienced so great a love that they have been transformed by it into people capable of expressing divinely empowered love themselves. If anyone does not love, they cannot possibly know God, because God is love.

John makes the incredible statement that love is from God, that He is the source of love.

Before we can understand John’s statement, we have to identify the kind of love he is talking about.

The greek word John uses in the statement God is love is agapē (ag-ah'-pay), often transliterated into English as agape, which is the noun form of the greek verb agapaō (ag-ap-ah'-o).

Much has been written about agape love, we couldn’t possibly address it all this morning, but briefly, it is important to understand that there are different greek words for love. They understood that not all love is the same. It is also simultaneously important to understand that there is a connectedness in the words. As much as it would make it easier, there are not neat little boxes in which we can identify each kind of love, but there are different emphases in the different words.

There is a Greek word for affectionate love. phileō (fil-eh'-o) which indicates a fondness or an affection. Jesus uses it to describe the way the Pharisees love the attention and respect they receive for the pious actions. When it is combined with the greek word for brother adelphos (ad-el-fos'), we get (fil-ad-el-fee'-ah) which is translated into Philadelphia (the city of brotherly love)

There is a Greek word for natural, familial love. storgḗ (STOR-ghee) which indicates a natural, instinctual affection. Like that between parents and children or brothers and sisters. Both of these are found in the New Testament writings.

There is another Greek word for what we would call passionate love. érōs. Although the word is absent, the idea is present, confined within the bounds of covenant marriage between one man and one woman.

The fourth Greek word for love is the word that John uses, agape.

C.S. Lewis in his work, the four loves, calls agape the greatest of all loves, we must subjugate all other loves, because they are subordinate to agape love. When John says God is love, he is saying that God embodies perfectly and fully this kind of love.

We cannot deny that people express love apart from belonging to God, so how do we understand John’s statement theologically and practically?

First, we acknowledge that every human being is created in the image of God and however imperfectly they do so, they reflect things about God. The reason anyone can experience love is because they have been endowed with the ability by their creator.

Second, we acknowledge that human expressions of love apart from God, are often lesser expressions of love. Formed by affection, whether natural or relationally, or by desire. Most of what we might call genuine expressions of love actually find their source in less than Godly motives. What can appear to be love for another may be at its core from a foundation of simply loving oneself. That is I love this person because of what they provide me or what they do for me. Even sacrificial love may be motivated by self-love for the purpose of gaining appreciation, recognition, or reciprocity.

When John says let us love one another, he is calling us to a higher expression of love than we might first imagine.

Should we have affection for one another? Absolutely, we should see one another in an affectionate light. A friendly, committed, devoted kind of love.

Should we have familial affection for one another? Absolutely, we are the family of God. We are brothers and sisters in the household of God.

Paul even combines these two words phileo and storge in Romans 12:10when he says “10 Love one another with brotherly affection…” More literally translated, be devoted to one another in brotherly love. The word devoted is philostorgos (fil-os'-tor-gos) a combination of affection and familial love.

We ought to be men and women who are devoted to one another beyond mere friendly love and beyond mere familial affections.

But agape is even more than that. It is neither natural nor instinctual. It is divine both in source and substance.

What does this kind of love look like? To truly understand agape love, we need to look at our next statement, as we look at…

II. THE DECLARATION OF LOVE

Let’s revisit verse 9

1 John 4:9 ESV

9 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.

If God is love, if it finds its source in Him, then it stands to reason He will be the model that we look to in understanding agape love. What does God’s love look like? John says In this, or by this, the love of God was made manifest, or made visible, realized, among us.

What follows is John’s declaration of the evidence of God’s love, how we can both know and understand the kind of love he is calling us to. How do we know what love is?

God showed us in sending his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.

This statement of course reminds us of the most well known and popular verses of all time. John 3:16 “16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

1 John 4:9 is not just another way to say John 3:16 it also helps us understand what Jesus’ words mean in John 3.

Too often we get the wrong idea from 1 John 3. The English translation ‘For God so loved the world’ leads some to stress the word ‘so’ as if it dealt with the amount of God’s love, as though Jesus is stressing the amount rather than the evidence of God’s love. If God is love then he cannot be anything other than perfectly loving. We say things like For God so loved John, or For God so loved Sue, which seems to indicate it was the amount of God’s love for you that caused him to send Jesus.

Admittedly, this is not a completely unbiblical way to think about God’s love, certainly God’s love is the basis in the action of sending Jesus, but the emphasis in John 3 and in 1 John 4 is not that the basis of sending Jesus is love, but sending Jesus was the way God loved us.

It is a subtle but important distinction.

When we studied John 3 we saw that a more literal translation of Jesus’ words would be For God loved the world in this way. Both John 3 and 1st John 4 aim at declaring how we know God’s love. It is a love that acts, it is a love that provides, it is a love that sacrifices for the good of another.

If this is our definition of love, if this is John’s declaration of God’s love, what can we say about agape, genuine, divinely sourced love?

We can say that it is not simply an emotion. God did not just love us in an abstract, distant, internal way.

We can say that love must be displayed for it to be love. God’s love is seen in his action of sending his only Son.

We can say that love is costly, costing the Father the sending of his only son, and costing the Son is life on the cross.

We can say that love is serving, in that Christ was sent for a purpose, so that we might live through him.

Those who were dead in their trespasses, those who were hopelessly condemned, unable to save themselves, those who had no ability to live, can and do live through Jesus Christ. That whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. This is the very essence of the gospel message which Paul sums up in Ephesians 2:1-10

Ephesians 2:1–10 “1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Why did God send Christ, why did God make us alive together with Christ, why did God choose to save us through faith?Because of the great love with which he loved us.

The gospel is one big display of God’s love. God is not only the source of love but he is the supreme example of what it looks like. If we define genuine agape love as anything less we not only fall short of the standard, but we fail to show that we have been born of God. It is divinely empowered, divinely defined love that is the evidence we belong to God.

A love that sacrifices, a love that serves, a love that acts. John continues helping us wrap our minds around agape love as he continues, which we will look at under the statement…

III. THE DELINEATION OF LOVE

In verse 10 John gets ever more clear about what agape love is. Let’s revisit that verse.

1 John 4:10 ESV

10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

In this is love- Previously he had said by this we see God’s love (the sending of his only son), now he says in this is love.John essentially says, this is how we understand genuine love, this is how we draw boundaries on genuine agape love.

It is not a love that is given because of the worthiness of the recipient, nor is it given with an eye to reciprocity.

John continues to explain agape love by explaining God’s love evidenced in sending his one and only son so that we might live through him. He says, not that we have loved God.

Notice the past tense, God did not love us because we loved him. God’s love is not a response to our love for him.

I would go further and say it is not a stretch to understand John’s statement as including anything we did do or would do or will do. God’s love was poured out on us, without regard to whether we would return that love.

God did not love us because he foresaw something lovable in us.

Indeed, the Apostle Paul dealing with the similar theme of God’s love says it this way in Romans 5:8 “8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Pressing further Paul says in Romans 5:10 “10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son…” There was nothing lovable about us, and that is the key to understanding agape love, it is a unconditional love, perfectly seen in God’s love that has been placed on us who were not only unworthy of it but enemies of God.

God provided his son to be the propitiation, the turning away of his righteous and just wrath against sinners, by sending his son to bear the sins of those whom he loved. Listen, not because they deserved it, not because of what he would get in return, not because of reciprocity, and certainly not because God needed you.

There is a song that is often sang in Christian churches, ‘What a beautiful name’. Are there some God honoring lyrics in it? Yes. Are there some potentially misleading and possibly unscriptural lyrics in it? Yes. The song says in the second verse, You didn't want heaven without us; So Jesus, You brought heaven down.

Some have defended the song and implied that those who have a problem with the lyrics are being unnecessarily critical. I don’t think so at all. If there is even a chance that one person would hear that lyric and think that there was something intrinsically worthy in them that caused God to send Jesus, that somehow God needed us, that heaven wasn’t heaven without us, then that’s not a chance I’m willing to take.

I will not confuse what scripture makes clear.

God sent his one and only son because of love, but not because we were worthy recipients of his love, but simply because of his great love and furthermore the Bible declares that God sent his Son to save us so that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy. Or as we saw in Ephesians, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Agape love is an unconditional kind of love.

You and I don’t deserve God’s love, that’s why we experience it by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone to the glory of God alone as revealed in scripture alone.

On the other hand, John has already made it abundantly clear that anyone who has experienced this kind of love will show evidence of it by their own love for the brothers, which brings us to our final statement this morning. We have looked at the divinity of love, the declaration of love, the delineation of love, now we turn our attention to…

IV. THE DEMAND OF LOVE

Just because we did not deserve God’s love does not mean that there is not a proper response for those who have experienced it. Let’s pick up in verse 11.

1 John 4:11–12ESV

11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

John returns to his usage of beloved, reminding them that they have both God’s love and his love, then he makes the statement if God so loved us. John is not making an if statement that indicates possibility, but rather he is saying since God so loved us, again, same language as John 3, not emphasizing amount but manner, so that we should read his statement as ‘since God has loved us in this way.’ What way? The way he just explained in verses 9 and 10, by sending his only Son into the world to be the propitiation for our sins so that we might live through him. Since God has loved us in that way, in the agape, self sacrificial, unconditional, way, we also ought to love one another. This statement brings to mind a previous one that John made that we looked at in chapter 3 verse 16. 1 John 3:16 “16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.”

As I said there, the word ought should be understood not as something imposed by law or even something imposed by duty of office, but rather something should be done by necessity of reason. If we have experienced the kind of love that we have, doesn’t it make sense that we ourselves would express that kind of love to the brothers, especially in light of the new life we have in Christ where we are indwelled by the Holy Spirit, the very presence of influence of God in our lives.

John’s remarks in verse 12 both ties up these verses as well as serves as a set up for what will follow. This morning we will just look at the way it ties up verses 7-11. We can know that we are born of God because we have the love of God, we know we have the love of God because we have experienced reconciliation through Christ, in the forgiveness of sins and in adoption into the family of God. If God so loved us we should love one another and even though we have never seen God, our love for one another is evidence that he abides in us.

In his gospel, John says, in verse 18 of chapter 1. John 1:18 “18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.”

No one has ever seen God in all of his heavenly splendor, but Christ made God known through his life and work, summed up in 1st John as being sent to be the propitiation for our sins so that we might live through him. In Christ we see the love of God and although we can never fully understand God, Jesus revealed to us much of the Father in his life and ministry. In the same way, I think John is saying, if we genuinely agape, divinely love one another, not only is it evidence that we belong, people can learn about God by observing our love. Which, John says, is its intended purpose.

Let’s look at the statement, and his love is perfected in us. This is the second time John has used this phrase, one that he will expound on in the later verses of chapter 4. The word in the Greek translated perfected is a word that carries the idea of completed or matured. John is not saying that we can add anything to God’s love or that it is somehow incomplete apart from us, but what I think he is saying is that when the love of God flows through us to those around us, the purpose of his love is brought to maturity in our life, it is accomplishing what it designed to accomplish. God’s love poured out on us is not just so that we might be reconciled and born again, but so that we might then become little moons reflecting back the glory of the sun as God’s love is seen in our love for one another.

This is the heart of Ephesians 5:1–2 “1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” As those who have been loved by God, imitate his love and walk in love, as Christ loved us. This is the call or the demand on anyone who has received the love of God through Christ.

Genuine love, agape love, that John says is evidence of belonging to God is divine in its nature and source, it is seen clearly in the sending of Christ by the Father, it is an unconditional love, a love freely received that should be freely given.

This is love.

As we close this morning, I would encourage you if you are a recipient of God’s love that you would understand that God’s love is given to you so that you might love those around you with a supernatural divine love.

If a lack of divine love for those around you this morning is causing you to question whether or not you have truly experienced the love of God, I encourage you to take that to the Father this morning in prayer.

If you think that you somehow deserve the love of God, I would encourage you to ask yourself if you truly understand the nature of the Father’s love.

For all of us, I pray that as we think about the overwhelming, gracious love of God expressed in sending his only son to bear the price of our sins, we might be drawn into an even deeper appreciation of it and into a deeper worship of Him. Let us pray.