God is Love Pt. II

Love Shows the Presence of God's Spirit.

Abiding in the Spirit’s Presence (vs.13)

Contextually, all this portion of Scripture deals with love. God has given us His Spirit, His Spirit causes us to love. Perhaps the best place to look for evidence of the indwelling Spirit is the spiritual fruit of a believer’s life. Yes, this may be slightly more difficult to observe, but only if we are unaware of what to look for. See Gal. 5:22-23 for a list of spiritual fruit.

The Spirit plays a significant role in the believer’s life, guiding the believer into all truth and bringing to mind the teachings of Christ, leading the believer to confess Jesus as Christ, the Son of God, and assuring our consciences that we belong to God.

Confessing the Son as Savior (vs.14-15)

The word for seen means “to gaze upon something that stimulates the moral and mental faculties in an impressive (and often astonishing) way.” Truly this involves more than just physically seeing Jesus. It requires the eyes of faith to understand that He is indeed the Savior. How do we “gaze admiringly” upon Jesus? It is rooted in our confession that Jesus is the Son of God. Again, this likely relates back to 1 Jn 4:2. Confession is a public profession that is either accessible or observable by the public. In more recent times, the public profession has been more closely associated with “walking the aisle.” However, the church has traditionally practiced baptism as the means of publicly associating with Christ, as was command by Jesus in the Great Commission, step one of making disciples. Further, Scripture is clear that the believer’s words and walk must match — an empty confession is of no value (see Mt 7:21-23).

When Peter offers His confession of Jesus (Mt 16:16), he says that Jesus is the “Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus’ response to Peter is that “flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” (Mt 16:17). This accords with 1 Jn 4:2 and the Spirit of God being evident in the believer’s life because of the confession of the incarnation.

Knowing the Father’s Love (vs.16)

The word for know is in the perfect tense, which in simple terms is a past action that has on-going effects or lasting significance.

Because of God’s nature — love — the one who abides in love abides in God, and vice versa. This mirrors 4:8, when God says that failing to love comes from not knowing God, because “God is love.” God’s very nature informs the way that we live — we abide in love. Doing so means we live out our relationship with God and give evidence that indeed His Spirit lives in us.

Experience: You know, one of the things we mentioned Wednesday night, one of the things Paul prays for the church is that they would know the love of God which surpasses understanding. He wants them to know and be filled with this love. Knowing this love leads to being filled with “all the fullness of God.” How well do we know the love of God? And, consequently, how much is it affecting our daily lives?

Love Stimulates Confidence on the Day of Judgment.

Confidence for the Future (v.17)

Abiding in love prefects love in us. Trace the line of thought here: God is love, therefore His people abide in love. Abiding in love gives assurance that the believer abides with God and God with him. As God’s people live out the characteristic of God (love), said love is being perfected or completed, being brought to maturity in the believer’s life. This in turn causes the believer to abide all the more in love (implied), leading to confidence on the day of judgment. Why? As He is so also are we in this world. In other words, godly character is continually being formed in us, providing further evidence that we belong to God and giving confidence for judgment day.

Love Casts our Fear (v.18)

John says it pretty plainly. Why is there no fear in love? How does perfect love cast out fear? It’s because fear has to do with punishment. John has already stated that “the love of God was made manifest among us…that God sent His only Son into the world…He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation (atoning sacrifice) for our sins” (1 Jn 4:9-10). There is no punishment left for the believer — Jesus suffer fully on our behalf. If fear still wrecks a person, fear concerning judgment day, they have not yet been perfected in love.

GOSPEL OPPORTUNITY

Love Shines God's Character in the World.

Love Comes from God (v.19)

As Creator and Redeemer, God has taken all the initiative in love. It has been said that hate is the absence of love. While some point to the evil in the world and ask where is a loving God in the middle of the pain and suffering, the better question to ask is why we know love and beauty and joy at all in a world so ravaged by sin? Here, John points out that God’s love is the basis of all human love, preceding all expressions of love.

How would we know if we’ve genuinely impacted by the love of God? We love because He first loved us. All intersections of true and self-giving love, not matter how the world might distort love, comes from the Creator-Redeemer, and contextually it continues John’s test for true belief: we love one another.

Refer back to 1 Jn 4:10-12 for more notes.

Loving God and your Brother (v.20-21)

This statement is a bit of a full circle for John, going back to 1 Jn 2:9-11. Some quick notes from those verses: There are four consequences for hating one’s brother. 1.) You are in the darkness, that is, spiritually dead. This is their current state. 2.) You walk in the darkness. Not only is this person spiritually dead, but they actively rebel against God. 3.) You do not know where you are going. This is a life devoid of purpose and leading to destruction. 4.) You are blinded in your eyes. This means you lack the wisdom to avoid pitfalls and disaster.

The first two points seem to be what John is returning to and reminding his readers about. Failing to love one another shows that the love of God is not in us, meaning the Spirit of God is not in us, which proves that we are still in the darkness, spiritually dead. Further, because we are spiritually dead, we rebel against God, walking in the darkness to borrow from his earlier language.

It is a logical inconsistency to claim to love God while hatred for others clings to us for dear life.

Experience: Check your hate list. We talked about this a few weeks back when going through chapter 2, but what’s it look like? When you pray for forgiveness, are you making sure to pray for the forgiveness of others as well? Conversely, how’s your love list? Are you actively serving? Is there anyone blacklisted from your “serve” list?

We’re called to make sure our daily lives reflect the love of God. Particularly, this love should express itself in sacrificial service to others. There’s nobody who is blacklisted, no one beyond our service. We aim to love all, and if we don’t, we aim to forgive and treasure that we might love through not just word, but also deed. To that end, we ask God to give us an understanding of His love, a love that was first expressed through the fact that He created us, and then was proved by the fact that He redeemed us. As we understand His love, we are filled by His Spirit that our lives might testify to the truth that Jesus is God’s Son, our Savior, giving eternal assurance and casting out fear.