Nate Holdridge

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The Origin of Truth and Love - Love One Another (1 John 4:7-12)

Nate Holdridge

Each week throughout 2021, I will share a Bible study blog post taking us through the letter of 1 John. Only five chapters long, this brief book is worthy of our consideration. Whether you drop in for one post or many, I pray that you enjoy them. Access all posts here.

A. Love Is From God (7-8)

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Again

Once again, John takes us back to a main theme of his: let us love one another (7). He's not like Paul, who was more linear in his arguments. Instead, John is systematically spiraling in his logic. He's introduced love, talked about it a fair bit, but is now ready to do a deep dive.

John's audience might have felt he was redundant with them. Perhaps we might join them in saying, "Yo, John, we got it. Love each other. Say something else, please." But, instead of moving off the subject, John hits it harder than he has up to this point. We won't cover it all in our study today.

As I said, he's already made this appeal a couple of times in the letter. The first appeal was attached to God's light, and if we want to walk in the light, we should love one another (1 John 2:9-11). His second appeal was attached to our nature, that if we are born again, we will love others (1 John 3:10-24).

Love Is From God

And in this passage, he combines both themes to show us that love is from God (7) since God is love (8).

Part of the reason John felt compelled always to tell us to love one another is that he was constantly thinking about God. He had come to know love is from God, and God is love (7, 8).

For John, knowing God is knowing love. Without God, a person cannot know the truest love. And when John says God is love, he means every activity of God is filtered through love. God can't do anything unloving; it is His very nature. He is love. Love is from Him.

You see, love is not one of God's activities, but His every activity. It's just who He is. He defines the substance. He is love.

So We Will Love

John will explain what he means by God's love in a moment, but before we move on, notice how John thinks. He says people who have been born of God and know God will love (7). And people who do not love do not know God (8). At the very least, they are out of experiential fellowship with Him. And at worst, they aren't born of Him in the first place.

Remember those mountains. To have hiked them, to have gone to the source of the great Colorado River, is quite an experience. The mountains and peaks are beautiful.

And the believer who loves has been born of and has known God (7). They have experienced Him.

When I was in high school, our sports teams, if they were good enough, would make the local Central Coast Section playoffs. Each participant would get a t-shirt as evidence they were part of the CCS playoffs. The next year, when the younger players moved up to the varsity squad, the older players could wear their CCS shirts as evidence of where they went the previous year. The younger players had no such shirt to wear.

And, in John's mind, Christian love is the playoff t-shirt Christians are to wear. We've been born of God. We know God. So we should love like God.

B. Love Moved God (9-10)

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.

The Incarnation

John has told us God is love and that love comes from God (7, 8). Here, he details that love. First, he shows us God's love caused Him to send His only Son into the world (9). In other words, love moved God to send His Son.

The incarnation is an expression of God's love, but it also enabled God's love. By becoming one of us, God was able to effectively love us.

Without the incarnation, Christianity is just another one of the religions of the world, because if Jesus isn't God who became flesh, then He's only a man trying to be so good He can get to God, or become divine.

But Jesus wasn't trying to earn divinity; He was already divine. Jesus' story isn't of man reaching up for God, but of God reaching down for us.

"I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross. The only God I believe in is the one Nietzsche ridiculed as 'God on the cross.' In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?

I have entered many Buddhist temples in different Asian countries and stood respectfully before the statue of the Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world.

But each time after a while I have had to turn away. And in imagination I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in Godforsaken darkness.

That is the God for me! He laid aside His immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in the light of His." -- John Stott, The Cross of Christ, p. 326

The Cross

But Jesus didn't come to merely experience our humanity; He came to die. Notice how John says it: 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 (10).

We talked about the word "propitiation" back in 1 John 2, but I'll remind you it speaks of Jesus dying for our sins and satisfying the righteousness of God on our behalf. We used to be enemies of God, but through propitiation, Jesus makes us friends and family.

John's point, though, is to show us what God's love drove God to do. The cross was the natural outflow of God's love and holiness and justice.

Remember those volcano science experiments? I always wanted to build one. You take an empty 2-liter and fill it with various ingredients, vinegar, and baking soda among them. When those ingredients intermix, they blast out into a little fake lava pouring down the paper mache volcano.

Well, God's love and holiness intermixed, and the cross was the result. At the cross, His love and justice were satisfied. Our sins were dealt with.

If you don't yet know Him, you should. He loves you. He is love. There is no one and nothing like God. His love will shock you. But you must receive it, accepting what He did for you on the cross of Christ. There, Jesus died to take your punishment so your sin would no longer be in the way of God's love. Believe in Jesus, and the love of God can run wild in your life.

C. Love Demonstrates God (11-12)

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's conclusion is simple: Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another (11). If we've gone up to His mountain and have been impacted by His love, we should love others.

And the cool thing is, as John said, no one has ever seen God in His totality (12). Our earthly bodies cannot handle the fullness of His holiness and glory. His majesty is too much for us on this side of eternity.

But there is one amazing way people can see God: if we love one another (12). When that happens, His love is perfected in us (12).

In other words, the circuit of God's love is complete when we release love. It starts with Him, it flows through the cross, and we receive it, but then it should flow from us to others.

In this way, when we love, we aren't a dead-end for the love of God.

A good example of this is an electric circuit. When you turn on a light switch or push the power button on your television, you are completing the electric circuit, allowing the current of electrons to flow through the wires. But when the switch is in the OFF position, the electricity cannot flow.

Let us be people who have our switch in the ON position, so the circuit of God's love can flow to the world around us.

Applications

So God is the origin of truth and love. We are to abide in both.

Before I let you go, let me suggest a few applications of the passage we've studied over the past three weeks (1 John 4:1-12):

1. Read your Bible.

If the spirit of error exists, we should spend time in the Word. Time with the genuine article will help us see counterfeits.

2. Get a study Bible.

We can understand so much more of the Bible than we give ourselves credit for, and I often tell Christians to concentrate on what they do understand in God's Word. But a study Bible can help you with various questions you'll inevitably come across as you read. I recommend the ESV Study Bible. This is a good first step in having the Scripture explained to you as you read. https://amzn.to/2XgalLn

3. Purchase a decent commentary.

More in-depth than a study bible, a commentary can serve as a helpful resource when you are stuck on a passage's meaning. Here is one I recommend: https://amzn.to/33RHvn2

4. Grab some recommended resources.

Sign up for their email lists. Download their apps. Purchase their books. When you use them, you'll thank me.

5. Read healthy and widely regarded systematic theologies.

I gave this exhortation at the beginning of our 1 John study, and I'm sure nearly everyone has finished their first 800-page volume, so I thought I'd throw out the exhortation once again. Here are a few I like:

  • Systematic Theology, Henry Thiessen
  • Systematic Theology, Wayne Grudem
  • Systematic Theology, Norman Geisler

6. Refuse to see God's love as a doctrine for soft Christians.

God is love. Love is from God. This is biblical, but sometimes Christians grow tired of the perversions of these statements. People act as if love is God, which is untrue. Still, you should believe meditation upon the doctrine of God's love will make you one of the toughest and strongest people around. This truth changes us, enabling us to sacrifice and love others.

7. Have other Christians over for meals.

Jesus incarnated. We can have people over to eat food. There's just something about it. Christians have broken bread as a way to interact with each other and fellowship about God for centuries now. Join them.

8. Spend time in God's presence.

Since John expected love to flow from the knowledge of who God is, that God is love, we should spend time with God. He will alter us.