The Victory of Love

November 16, 2025|The Victory of Love|1 John 5:1-5

JD Cutler

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As we continue our look at the apostle John’s pastoral letter to the churches, we come to a new movement in the letter. Over the last two weeks we have looked at John’s climactic conclusion about love and the child of God. The last verse we looked at is verse 21, where John emphatically states, (ESV) 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

We concluded our look at that verse with the statement, ‘Very simply, the way you evaluate the genuineness of your love for God is not in how you feel about God, but how you treat those who are loved by God.’

In closing we looked at Jesus’ description of the final judgment where he separates the nations based on how they treated the least of these and how Jesus connected Peter’s love for Himself to his treatment of those who belong to Him in that great walk beside the sea of Galilee moment after the resurrection.

My prayer is that we all clearly see that our love for God is reflected in our love for his children. That a confession of faith apart from love for your brother is an empty confession.

But maybe you were left with some questions on Sunday. Perhaps the lingering question that we are left with after John so plainly tells us that we cannot love God if we do not love our brother, is how? How do I love my brother? or maybe, who is my brother? Like the man who asked Jesus who is my neighbor in response to the command you shall love your neighbor as yourself. It is to these we turn this morning.

While beginning to change his direction from love to faith, here we find the overlapping passage that connects the two. In the first five verses of chapter 5 we find John discussing faith, love, and victory over the world, before turning more fully to faith in verses 6-12, and then beginning in verse 13 John reaches the conclusion of his letter, listing a myriad of things that we know, possibly a final confrontation with the gnostic teachers who claimed to have special knowledge.

This morning we are going to see John clearly articulates who your brother is, he describes what loving God is and your brother looks like, as well as reminding us that faith is central to overcoming the world.

1 John 5:1–5 ESV

1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. 4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

As we begin this morning we see that John begins by outlining who is your brother. Let us turn our attention to…

I. THE SCOPE OF OUR LOVE

Although John starts a new paragraph here, I do not think he starts a new thought. I think he is continuing from his previous statements.

1 John 4:7 “7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.”

1 John 4:11 “11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

1 John 4:20–21 “20 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. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.”

As we have already stated, a legitimate question from these verses and in particular verses 20-21 is who is my brother?

Who is my brother that my inability to love exposes my lack of love for God?

Who is my brother, so that I may love him as I have been commanded?

It is this question John answers in verse 1. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. As a believer myself, who is a child of God, anyone that also believes that Jesus is the Christ is also a child of God, and the math here isn’t hard, that means they are my brother, or sister as the world includes.

How do I know that I have been born of God?

John has said 1 John 2:29 “29 If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.” ; 1 John 3:9 “9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.” ; 1 John 4:7 “7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.”

John has been giving us doctrinal and moral tests all throughout this letter.

By now, if you have been listening, you are either firmly convinced you belong to God or you know that you do not. The last test of course being ‘do I love my brother?’

John says, not do I love those whom are most like me in the church.

John says, not do I love those whom are love-able in the church.

John says, everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God.

Now, John is not backtracking. He is not now saying, the only evidence of being born again is that someone claims to believe that Jesus is the Christ. Rather, he is summarizing.

But anyone who gives a credible confession of faith is to be seen as our brother or sister, until it otherwise becomes clear that their life does not match up with what John has said so far.

By the way, if it is not abundantly clear yet, loving your brother is not an optional add on to the Christian life, John makes this statement. everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.

Now, I don’t claim to be a Greek scholar, but even a light digging at the Greek reveals that John essential says, whoever is loving the father, will love his children. The word loves in the statement loves whoever has been born of him is an indicative, a simple statement of fact. If you truly love God, you will love his children. Period.

If you truly love God, you will love his children. Period.

As I said last week, if you find no love in your heart for the brothers, you should not have confidence in your claim to love God. Not because you need to somehow muster up love for others, if you truly have been transformed by the love of God, if you have been brought to life by the Spirit, you will find in your heart love for those who have been born of God.

It is not only a command, it should be the natural inclination of those who belong to God to love those who also belong to God.

Will we do it perfectly? Of course not.

Will we often have to repent and pray for the Lord’s mercy? Yes

But there will be in us a desire, a seed of divine love for all those who belong to God.

The early church father Augustine says it this way, To love the children of God is to love the Son of God; to love the Son of God is to love the Father. Nobody can love the Father without loving the Son, and anyone who loves the Son will love the other children as well

Think about it this way, the Bible teaches that believers make up the body of Christ, but it also calls the church collective the bride of Christ. How can you claim to love God and love Christ, and not have love for his bride?

Imagine that you said, Pastor I love you, but I cannot stand your wife. How much would I think of your love for me? If you truly love me you will love those that I love.

How is it any different in the church?

Every believer is a living testimony to the love of God through Christ, every believer is a picture of God’s great love in providing his son Jesus Christ to be the propitiation for their sins, every believer is a recipient of God’s great love.

If they have received the love of God in Christ, who are you as a recipient of the love of God, not to love them?

If you are one of these that says, I love them but I don’t have to like them, or I can love them from a distance. Tell me how you square that with how Jesus loved them? How God loved them? A love that John says was undeserved and sacrificial, a love that humbled itself and took the place of rebellious sinners, a love that caused God to enter his creation to be among his people so that they could experience the fullness of his love.

So, what do you mean you will love them but not like them, or love them from a distance? Walk that out. What if Christ loved you the way you claim to love others? Something to think about this week.

Every believer is included in John’s statement, everyone who loves the father, loves whoever has been born of Him. Having dealt with the scope of our love, John now moves to describing it. Our second division this morning is…

II. THE SUBSTANCE OF OUR LOVE

Look again, briefly at verse 2.

By this we know that we love the children of God.

Such a seemingly simple statement and yet it is packed with meaning.

The words by this in the Greek ared use to prepare the reader or the hearer for what follows, it is designed to call your attention to what follows. It is the equivalent of a pastor saying, don’t miss this, or look up here, or any other myriad ways you could say it. John wants his hearers to pay attention because what is coming is important. It’s also in the singular tense. John says pay attention, I am going to tell you the one thing. This one thing is how we know that we love the children of God.

What a powerful statement. Those who love God will love his children, and here is the one thing that is evidence that you love his children. I mean imagine all the ways we show love to those around us. 33 years ago, Dr. Gary Chapman published his book, The Five Love Languages that sought to help us understand how we express and receive love from one another. Anyone that has taken time to understand their spouses love language can tell you that it makes a huge difference when you know what in particular makes your spouse feel loved. Except John doesn’t give us five expressions of love, he gives us a singular one. How do we know that we love the children of God? When (or at the time) that we love God and obey his commandments.

John connects obedience to God with love of God. The substance of our love is obedience, which John clearly states in verse 3, For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. Now where did John get such an idea of love?

His master, when he was in the upper room with the other disciples on the night Jesus was betrayed, arrested, and the mock trials that would lead to his crucifixion began.

John 14:15 “15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

John 14:21 “21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.””

John 14:23 “23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”

John 14:24“24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.”

John 15:10 “10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.”

Jesus is pretty clear- if you love me, you will keep my commandments, he will keeps my commandments is he who loves me. If someone loves me, he will keep my word.

So I think John is just picking up on what Jesus taught him, when he says, this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. If we love God it will be reflected in our obedience to God.

Now let’s work backwards for a minute. How is obedience to God, which is a reflection of our love for God, evidence or assurance that we love the children of God? We often think of God’s commandments as a list of rules to follow, but have we ever stopped and wondered why he gave us the commandments in the first place? Why out of the ten commandments, six have to deal with how we treat others?

Think about what Paul says in Romans 13:9 “9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.””

Specifically naming the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 10th commandment of the law and adding any other commandment, are summed up in You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Obedience to God’s commands not only shows a love for God but it is for the good of our neighbors. It protects them from adultery, murder, theft, and unnecessary problems in relationships over what he possesses.

Paul says something similar in Galatians 5:14 when he says “14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.””

God’s commandments show believers the way to do good for others. God’s commands throughout scripture protect others from us. For Israel, it protected the foreigner when God commanded them not to glean the edges of their fields, it protected a wife from a false accusation of adultery, it protected property with laws on how to make amends for damaged property, it protected life and deterred crimes against others when God commanded that violators of certain commands be put to death.

How can we be sure we are loving our brothers?

When we are loving God and obeying his commandments. Which, John says, are not burdensome. Keeping them is not grievous to us.

Now, we often think of the law as oppressive. But listen to what Jesus says in the temple.

Matthew 11:28–30 “28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.””

We rightly understand that Jesus is speaking to those burdened by trying to earn God’s favor by keeping the law. But I think we often miss verse 19. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me. In this day, laborers would often yoke a new inexperienced animal with a wise experienced one so that the wise animal could by being firmly connected to the inexperienced animal could teach it how to do the job before it. Jesus’ invitation is not an invitation to antinomianism, but rather to allow him to lead us, to train us in gentleness, in humility, in obedience. Making what is a heavy, unbearable load, in Jesus, something we can walk with him in. Jesus did not come so that we would abandon the commands of God, but to empower us, to walk with us, to steer us in obedience and love.

Jesus did not come so that we would abandon the commands of God, but to empower us, to walk with us, to steer us in obedience and love.

Loving others and so fulfilling the law is not burdensome, when you are born again and empowered by love of God and the Spirit of God. When you are not trying to earn standing with God but living out your right standing with God In Jesus. When Jesus is with you and empowering you and leading you, loving others is not a burden, it is a delight.

Obeying the commandments then become the way we express our love for God and by extension love for others.

This is, by the way, so counter cultural, so strange to sinful men, so foreign to the world, that John actually connects it with overcoming the world, which brings us to our last division this morning as we look at…

III. THE SUCCESS OF OUR LOVE

Let’s pick up in verse 4 and read 4 and 5 again,

1 John 5:4–5 “4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”

This is not the first time John has mentioned the world. I will remind you that back in chapter 2, John said. 1 John 2:15–16 “15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.”

There John contrasts the things from the Father and the things from the world, as well as expresses the incompatibility of love for the world and love for God. Having spent time talking about the connection with being born again, faith, loving God and loving others, John now reminds his readers that those who are born of God overcome the world.

This is interesting terminology that John uses. John says everyone who has been born of God conquers the world. He used the same word in chapter 4 talking about the spirit of the antichrist that was in the world already, when he says 1 John 4:4 “4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”

We are not greater than he who is in the world, but he who is in us is.

Similarly, in chapter 5 John does not say that we overcome the world in our own power, but that it is those who have been born again, indwelt by the Spirit of God who conquer the world.

What is the means of our success? What is the means of our victory?

Our faith.

Which John clarifies in verse 5, even as he echoes verse 1 again. Who is it that overcomes the world, except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. In the first part of verse 1 he said, 1 John 5:1 “1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God…

Let’s walk out the connection.

Those who believe that Jesus is the Christ have been born of God, or born again. Those who have been born again, love God and those born of God. We know we love those born of God, when we obey his commandments, which is love for God. So when we have love for God and obey his commandments and in turn love our brothers and sisters, we are assured that we will participate in Christ’s ultimate victory over the world.

Our faith that Jesus is the Son of God, that he is the Messiah, the Anointed one, the savior of the world, and our absolute trust in his finished work is what ultimately allows us to share in his victory over the world, death, sin, and the devil. As we have seen repeatedly in John, one of the primary ways we know that our faith is genuine and we are children of God is our love for the brothers.

I think it is an appropriate place for John to wrap up his treatment of love by reminding us that those who find assurance of their faith through the evidence of love for God and love for others can be assured that they will one day share in Christ’s ultimate victory.

Consequently, I don’t think John just has Christ’s ultimate victory in mind here, I think it is also a reminder that we can experience daily victory over the world when we walk in love.

As we mentioned previously, John described all that is in the world as the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and pride of life.

How do we gain victory over these as believers? We walk in faith.

Those who have been born again do not have to be mastered by their flesh, drawn away by their eyes, and lifted up by their pride.

Believing that Jesus is the Son of God, reminds us that in our flesh we are hopelessly lost and only through Christ can we find purpose and fulfillment.

Believing that Jesus is the Son of God, reminds us that having Christ is better than anything else we could see or gain in the world.

Believing that Jesus is the Son of God, reminds us that there is nothing within us to be prideful about.

Our faith that Jesus is the Son of God, the Christ, is what we need daily to experience victory over the world, incompletely and partially now, but which will one day culminate in experiencing the full victory secured by Christ for those who are in Christ.

A victory that we are assured of when we love the brothers by loving God and obeying his commandments.

Our faith that Jesus is the Son of God, the Christ, is what we need daily to experience victory over the world, incompletely and partially now, but which will one day culminate in experiencing the full victory secured by Christ for those who are in Christ.

Friends, as we close, I would encourage you to receive any correction from the Lord and His word this morning with humility and meekness.

I don’t know about you, but I know that there have been brothers and sisters that I love, but perhaps I have not been as loving as I should be. If you find the same to be true for you, then the obvious response is repentance and a renewed commitment to love all of the brothers. To not love from a distance, but to commit myself to loving all those believers around me in the way that Christ loved me, fully, completely, sacrificially, and in a way that serves them.

Perhaps you have been guilty of claiming to love God but neglecting aspects of his commandments. I pray that you would see that to call Jesus Lord is to submit yourself to living a life of obedience to Him. That genuine love for God is always accompanied by a desire to obey God. That if you find no desire to obey God within your heart, if you treat his commands as inconsequential and optional, if you are living a life that shows no desire to obey Christ, then you would not leave here with confidence that you love Christ.

For some of you, as we have gone through this text you have been able to identify a genuine love for the brothers in your heart, praise God that you can have assurance that you will one day share in Christ’s victory for eternity. May God grant you more and more love for the brothers.

Wherever you are this morning, we know that God’s word is living and active and never returns void.

Let us pray that it would accomplish in us exactly what God desires for it to this morning.

Lord, I pray that you would protect us from the enemy snatching away the seeds of truth that have been sown in our hearts and minds this morning. Lord, I pray that you would protect us from the concerns of live rising up and choking out the truth that has been sown in our hearts and minds this morning. Lord, I pray that you would protect us from the difficulties of life crashing in on us and threatening the growth you desire in us through the truth that has ben sown in our hearts and minds this morning. Lord, I pray that we would grab a hold of the truth of your word this morning and that it would bear fruit far and above what we could even fathom.