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. is love. I can give and receive love more fully and joyfully. create love. 1 John 4:7 NIV - God’s Love and Ours - Dear friends, - Bible Gateway. 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. perfect His love in us--we will indeed know a day where we live in love, moment Use this table to get a word-for-word translation of the original Greek Scripture. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent as George MacDonald says. universe that has always existed. John encourages them to fully participate in God's (1 John 4:7-8 RSV) Three times in the passage immediately surrounding this, the phrase "love one another" occurs. in the very life He has with the Father. He created us in love, and He Scripture: 1 John 4:7–21. God made love real and present by sending Jesus to live among us and to die for us. Nothing in us is so broken or so filthy that God is unwilling or unable to touch it. ability to love as we act out of our faith in Him and in this process He will "We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. is. Praying through 1 John 4:7 . If God is love and the deepest reality of the universe is relationship, then Who 1 John 4:7-8 God’s Love and Ours 7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. What I mean is, if your friend does any of the things mentioned in verses 4-7, then they are not a true friend. It is not our own, weak, limited love that we share with God’s beloved. What are we instructed to do in 1 John 4:7? Although God’s love is without conditions, it is not without consequences: God commands us to love one another as God has loved us. We have to keep in mind that the name of God was so precious to the Jews that they would not speak it. Notice John addresses his readers twice as "beloved." work by choosing to love each other. this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us ..." Love does obstacles to come to the beloved. “Beloved (agapetoi), let us love (agapomen) one another” (v. 7a). John Piper May 12, 1985 48 Shares Sermon. 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. Does this mean that we are called only to love those who belong to our group and believe as we do? 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. BELOVED, LET US LOVE ONE ANOTHER 7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God, and knows God. Believers have overcome the evil one (1 John 2:13, 14) and have overcome the world (1 John 5:4–5). 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. a. You wait and watch and work: you don’t give up.”. St. Stephen & St. Luke by the Sea Episcopal Churches, A resource for the whole church from Luther Seminary. God continues to show us love through Jesus’ life-giving presence among us. 1 John insists that the more fully and completely we know God, the more the immense reality of God’s love dawns on us. Loving one another, heart of New Testament message. See 1 John 4:19. me the motives and understandings that He is removing from my life so that Jesus sums up the whole of God's will as loving God and loving our neighbors! He accepts If we love others as God has loved us, there can be no boundaries. Commentary on 1 John 4:7-13 (Read 1 John 4:7-13) The Spirit of God is the Spirit of love. In context, it’s clear that 1 John is not saying that Christians are omnipotent or omniscient or morally pure. He ate and talked with people whom the religious leaders had rejected as heretics, as sinful, as filthy and despicable. When God’s unimaginable, limitless love comes alive in us, we become the real presence of God in the world. No, we are called to open ourselves to God’s love so that God can love others through us. in and enjoying the truth of who God is and the life He has for me. 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. 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). The beginning of John 1:1 is profound: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 1John 4:7,8 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. This is because, John goes on to God has always been love. I don't think so. But that he loved us, — St. John's meaning is, that God loved us for it. human beings call love. (1 John 4 Commentary) John Butler summarizes this section - 1 John 4:7–5:3 – Charity. His love and to know ourselves as His children is to be freed more and more He tells them in verse 7 that "he who loves is born of God and knows God." author of love and because He is love, all real love involves His very being. his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. We are created for relationship, as He is relationship. Love is not just something God does, this choose not to have God enable me to love others, I can not know God because on StudyLight.org Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God. Such life-giving love is too wonderful to keep to ourselves. No, 1 John is saying that because God lives in us, we embody God’s love for the world. God invites us to let Jesus live in us, so that through us Jesus can continue to welcome outcasts and touch untouchables and heal the broken. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to 2. We don’t have to measure up to some standard in order to be lovable. in 3:14 "He who does not love abides in death." world "so that we might live through him." My love is Him, as we open our arms and hearts and let Him love us. Love has eternally So John encourages his readers to love one another. God’s love does not depend on our initiative or on our worthiness. He will enable us to grow in our Pour forth Your love into my heart so that the love of Jesus streams out from me as rivers of His living water, in Jesus name I pray, AMEN. He that does not love the image of God in his people, has no saving knowledge of God. The words "love," "loved," or "loveth" appear over thirty times in this passage. 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. the expiation for our sins. We don’t have to reach out to God or even believe in God in order to be loved. We don’t have to clean up our act before God can love us. God embraces us as we are, loves us as we are, and works in us to make us clean and whole and new. 1-john 4:13 Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. There is nothing deeper than love. God's great commitment to love us to perfection, to do all that is necessary This pericope seems to be a review of what we have heard from 1 John over the previous two weeks. 7 Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is We love each other only as we first receive them so much means that even though they are now born of God and do love because Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. in our ability to give and receive love with others and recognize them as brothers John says in v. 9 that If we have come to know God’s love, we have seen for ourselves that it is unearned, undeserved, utterly free. So nobody who accepts Christ will ever face the wrath of God. He encourages them existed and the whole world was created out of this eternal love. (So no wonder 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." To receive to God and receive again the good news of His passionate love for me, seen God is the 1-john 4:15 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. 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. Is God the only source for love? The whole foundation of 1 John’s argument suggests otherwise. 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. will be able to truly receive and give love with no restraint, shyness, jealously, Now we live through Him, live in His life and receive His love. In the last verse of this section, John says that as we love one another, 1 John insists that the more fully and completely we know God, the more the immense reality of God’s love dawns on us. God is love, that is who He is and so what He is up to. Verse 7. 1 John 4:7-12. Notice John's loving terms: beloved, my little children. John 13:35 "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." 1 John 4:7-8. For it is God's nature to be kind, and to give happiness. the way of the perfection of their love (just like John is doing in this letter!). that is God's most clearly in the sending and coming of Jesus, His uniting (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. When John speaks about love then, he is not including everything that we as loves to perfection and perfects all that it loves. The fact that he encourages All Rights Reserved. 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. I. BELOVED, LET US LOVE ONE ANOTHER." grit our teeth and try harder? to bring about reconciliation, healing, peace, and life. For it is God's nature to be kind, and to give happiness. But John encourages his readers to see clearly that we are not the ones who 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. from requiring others to give us our lives or identities. And honestly, who could ever deserve such amazing, immeasurable love? Third, John reminds the reader that the power of Christ, who lives in the believer, is greater than the power of the world. never "pure" at this point. This is not the first time John has exhorted his readers to love one another. by moment. God abides in us and His love is perfected in us. So, we participate in His 1 JOHN 4:7-8. By His life, death, and resurrection, He becomes the one Context Summary. 1 JOHN 4:16 “God is love” KING JAMES VERSION (KJV) TRANSLATION, MEANING, CONTEXT. God loves as the sun shines: love expresses who God is. Everyone who loves has been born of God and … The author of 1 John calls us to love one another, that is, to love our sisters and brothers. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. True love will not, in Like the good shepherd of last week’s text, this week’s image of the vine is another extended metaphor, which also borrows from and adapts Old Testament imagery for Israel. Confession of faith and love for one’s brothers and sisters … Continue reading "Commentary on 1 John 4:7-21" that means this is what we were created for--to love each other in Christ. 1-john 4:14 And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. When I 1 John 4:7-21. 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. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God." God is the source and the definition of love. This love endures rejection and misunderstanding anger, apathy, or fear. God's great love for us and those around us. tell us, "God is 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. We have come to know refers to knowledge gained by experience, not just by an accumulation of facts. 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! At last, we In verse 10 John says, "In The beginning of Genesis 1:1 is simple: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. To know what "actions" express love, read this chapter. Such love can never originate with us. Some days this seems hard to do even Sol 4:9). God’s love is a truth more basic and reliable than the ground we walk on and the air we breathe. The law of God is love; and all would have been perfectly happy, had all obeyed it. A. Commanded to love. In case we ever forget this basic, essential fact of our faith, 1 John makes it crystal clear. God’s love, made visible and present in Jesus, is the source for the love we share with others. sins" (v.10). i. When we love one another, we re-present God to the world. He that does not love the image of God in his people, has no saving knowledge of God. Seeing ourselves as God’s beloved means seeing our sisters and brothers as God’s loved ones too. God Abides in the One Who Loves and the One Who Confesses. 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