This Is Love - 1 John 4:7-21

Introduction

We will never fully understand unconditional love.

Think about dating someone but listing all of our baggage.

We date conditionally.

Really I think one of the only moments I’ve experienced unconditional love is when we had our Son Samuel

I’ll never forget the first time we got COVID.

Sammy sick - move heaven and earth

That is just a fraction of the overwhelming love that God has displayed in the gospel.

This love is so powerful, so radical, that it is near impossible to articulate

John takes us right to the heart of where love comes from: God Himself.

Love isn’t just an action for Him; it’s His very essence.

His fundamental character is to act in love.

And how do we know this?

The cross!

The cross of Calvary is an everlasting testament to the reality that our God is love.

John wants us to understand that this radical truth shapes and defines us.

Big Idea: God's children are known by their love

God is love, and because of that, we ought to love too.

These two truths are woven together throughout the letter.

God’s love is the root, and our love is the fruit,

It shows us that we really know Him.

Let’s walk through this together seeing first:

1. Love Comes from God (1 John 4:7-10)

A. The Source of Love (vv. 7-8)

1 John 4:7–8 (ESV)

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

In this section, the word "love" takes center stage,

showing up twenty-three times as a noun

and twice as a verb.

25 times - Love

John builds on what he said in 1 John 3:16

1 John 3:16 (ESV)

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

God has shown Himself to us through Jesus' self-sacrificial love.

As those who share in His life, we are called to love too.

Since God is love and we are His children, love should naturally flow from us.

When we love, we reflect our Father, who is the very essence of love.

God is the Origin of Love:

John takes us right to the heart of where love comes from: God Himself.

Again Love isn’t just an action for Him; it’s His very essence.

His fundamental character is to act in love.

Verse 8 says that our loving is the Proof of Knowing God:

Loving others is evidence that we know God and are His children.

Now We will go more into this in just a bit.

But for now have this question in the back of your mind: am I loving?

Because friends if you have encountered the living God you will be.

Before we wrestle with that question we have to stop and dwell on the love of God.

How do we see God’s love best displayed?

We see it Displayed in Jesus (vv. 9-10)

1 John 4:9–10 (ESV)

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. 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.

This isn’t a superficial love.

It is a deep and profound love.

Love finds its true meaning in the story of Jesus

Verses 9 and 10 are some of the most profound and significant verses in the Bible.

They highlight God’s initiative in loving us and the incredible magnitude of that love seen in the gift of His Son.

God didn’t send an angel; He sent His Son.

He didn’t send His Son to live a simple life;

He sent Him to die a sacrificial death.

This was no ordinary death—

it was the death of a Savior,

taking our place and bearing our punishment.

John underscores this by saying, “In this is love,” pointing us to the truth that follows.

God loved us before we ever loved Him.

He loved us even when we rejected Him.

He demonstrated His love by sending His Son.

Romans 5:8

Romans 5:8 (ESV)

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

God sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Let’s do a little theology work

Propitiation - again I love the way Joby Martin says it - Venti Caramel Machiatio- we can do this.

This term, “propitiation,” is rich with meaning and central to our faith.

It’s used three other times in the New Testament in the context of Jesus’ sacrificial death:

Romans 3:25 (ESV)

whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.

Hebrews 2:17 (ESV)

Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

1 John 2:2 (ESV)

He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

Propitiation means turning away God’s wrath through an offering sacrifice

In ancient pagan religions, people made offerings to appease angry gods.

But the New Testament reveals a different story.

In Christ, God Himself made the offering.

As 2 Corinthians 5:19

2 Corinthians 5:19 (ESV)

that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

This teaches us several profound truths about God.

Propitiation shows us that God personally hates sin and that sin is serious.

It reveals the greatness of God’s love, providing the offering to turn His wrath away.

It confirms that Christ’s death satisfied the Father’s justice and was a substitution for sinners.

It demonstrates that God’s holiness required satisfaction and that His love provided it.

But also in all of this it shows you that God is the one who initiated us in love.

God is the one who initiated us in love.

He is fully satisfied in you because he is fully satisfied in Jesus.

“For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be.” _John Stott

God loves you.

ILLUSTRATION

DL MOODY STORY

We built a church in Chicago a few years ago, and we were so anxious to make people believe that God is love, that we thought if we could not preach it into their hearts, we would burn it in,

and so right over the pulpit we had the words put in gas jets,

“God is love,” and every night we had it there.

A man going along there one night glanced in through the door and saw the text.

He was a poor prodigal, a homeless drunkard, and he passed on, and as he walked away, he said to himself,

“God is love? No. God is not love. God does not love me. He does not love me, for I am a poor, miserable sinner.

If God was love, he would love me. God is not love.”

Yet there the text was, burning down into his soul.

And he went on a little further, and turned around and came back and went into the meeting.

He didn’t hear what the sermon was, but the text got into his heart, and that is what we want.

It is of very little account what men say, if God’s word only gets into the heart.

And he stayed after the meeting was over, and I found him there weeping like a child;

but as I unfolded the Scripture, and told him how God had loved him from his earliest childhood all along,

the light of the gospel broke into his mind, and he went away rejoicing.

Do you see the love of God for you?

He has moved heaven and earth, rending his own heart to pursue you.

Jesus story book bible

When you get to the end of the creation story and the fall of Adam and Eve.

We find this quote:

“You see no matter what, in spite of everything, God would love his children with a Never-Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love. And though they would forget him, and run from Him, deep in their hearts God’s children would miss Him always, and long for Him — lost children yearning for their home.”

We see John says that love should settle in us and work through us we see second:

2. Our Call To Love (1 John 4:11-16)

Our Duty to Love One Another (v. 11)

1 John 4:11 (ESV)

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

If God loved us so greatly, we are called to love one another.

Again God's love is the root, and our love is the fruit, showing us that we really know Him.

When we truly grasp what God has done for us and how deeply He loves us,

loving one another isn’t optional—it’s essential.

That’s why John defines love before telling us to love.

You can’t love properly until you understand God’s love for you!

Notice the word “ought” in verse 11—it’s about obligation.

Some might think loving others is a choice, but it’s not; it’s a moral duty.

We must love one another as a reflection of our identity in Christ: “we also ought to love one another.”

If the greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart and to love our neighbor as ourselves, then not loving is the greatest failure.

Living like God means loving like God.

This is the divine call based on divine truth.

“Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (v. 11).

Christ’s sacrificial death sets the standard for our love:

we are to love others with the same intensity and sacrifice as Jesus.

(How do we do that? Only by the power of the Holy Spirit revealing God’s love to us and overflowing through us)

God’s love is intense and passionate.

“Is it a small thing in your eyes to be loved by God – to be the son, the spouse, the beloved, the delight of the King of glory? Christian, believe this, and think about it: you will be eternally embraced in the arms of the love which was from everlasting, and will extend to everlasting – of the love which brought the Son of God's love from heaven to earth, from earth to the cross, from the cross to the grave, from the grave to glory – that love which was weary, hungry, tempted, scorned, scourged, beaten, spat upon, crucified, pierced – love which fasted, prayed, taught, healed, wept, sweated, bled, died. That love will eternally embrace you.” _Richard Baxter

God’s love overwhelms us and flows from us.

John says that believers know this love so deeply that even though they haven’t seen him they have assurance Through Love

Verse 12

1 John 4:12–16 (ESV)

No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

Though no one has ever seen God, we have seen His love through Jesus.

Just as the wind moves the trees, God's love moves us.

When we, broken and flawed, love one another, we show the world that this love is real, that it is from God.

It’s a love that originates from God Himself, given to us through His unique Son.

God’s love in us is the undeniable proof that we are His children.

John emphasizes that “if we love,” it's not just a suggestion but an expectation.

When he says “His love is perfected in us,” it means that God’s love reaches its fullest expression when we love others.

It’s not about us achieving perfection but about God’s love being revealed through our actions.

When His love flows through us, God’s good purpose is fulfilled.

Verse 13 assures us that the Spirit within us is the embodiment of God’s love.

Christ is the manifestation of that love.

This indwelling love gives us confidence that we truly know God.

When we exhibit love, even in our imperfection, it shows that God’s character is alive in us.

The presence of the Spirit is our guarantee, our seal of assurance that we belong to God.

John drives this home saying that even though no one has seen God, He made Himself known through Jesus.

The apostles saw Him, touched Him, and testified that He is the “Savior of the world.”

This isn’t just for a select few—it’s for all people, all nations.

Jesus’ redemption extends to the entire world.

This gives us another layer of assurance.

Confessing Jesus as the Son of God means abiding in Him and He in us.

This relationship isn’t fleeting; it’s constant.

It’s not about a perfect moral record but about the continuous presence of the Spirit within us.

Our faith in Jesus anchors this truth.

This is the heartbeat of the Gospel—the relentless, inclusive, and transformational love of God.

Illustration

Bruce Thielemann tells the story of a church elder who showed what it means to follow Jesus.

A terrible ice storm had hit Pittsburgh, making travel almost impossible.

At the height of the storm, a church family called their pastor about an emergency.

Their little boy had leukemia and he had taken a turn for the worst.

The hospital said to bring the boy in, but they could not send an ambulance, and the family did not own a car.

The pastor’s car was in the shop, so he called a church elder.

The elder immediately got in his car and began the treacherous journey.

The brakes in his car were nearly useless.

It was so slick that he could not stop for stop signs or stop lights.

He had three minor accidents on the way to the family’s house.

When he reached their home, the parents brought out the little boy wrapped in a blanket.

His mother got in the front seat and held her son, and the father got in the back.

Ever so slowly they drove to the hospital.

Thielemann tells the story:

They came to the bottom of a hill and as they managed to skid to a stop, he tried to decide whether he should try to make the grade on the other side, or whether he should go to the right and down the valley to the hospital.

And as he was thinking about this, he chanced to look to the right and he saw the face of the little boy.

The youngster’s face was flushed, and his eyes wide with fever and with fear.

To comfort the child, he reached over and tousled his hair.

Then it was that the little boy said to him, “Mister, are you Jesus?”

Do you know in that moment he could have said yes.

For him to live was Jesus Christ.

People who piddle around with life never know moments like that.

Loving as Jesus loved requires courage.

God’s love compels us to love others relentlessly.

God’s love should overflow in love for others and it should result in confidence.

Lets see third the call

3. Live in Confident Love ( 1 John 4:17-21)

Look at verse 17

1 John 4:17–19 (ESV)

By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us.

Are you afraid?

See that phrase? “Fear has to do with punishment.”

When you’re afraid of death, it’s because you fear punishment.

But that fear shows you haven’t fully understood, believed, or grasped the gospel.

The gospel tells us that all sin, judgment, and condemnation have been removed.

Jesus finished the work of your salvation.

God’s perfect love, as high as the heavens are above the earth, took it all in your place.

Paul says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

There is no reason for fear.

Nothing can separate us from His love—not death nor life, not heavenly angels nor earthly rulers,

neither the mistakes of our past nor the pain of our future;

not the heights of peril or the depths of despair;

nor anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

When you truly grasp this, fear vanishes.

The love of God is so vast and so complete that it casts out all fear.

It’s like standing under a waterfall of grace, where every drop tells you that you’re loved, forgiven, and safe.

It’s knowing deep in your soul that the God of the universe calls you His child, and nothing can change that.

Imagine living every day in that reality.

No more fear of punishment, no more fear of death, just living in the freedom of God’s love.

That’s the invitation of the gospel—to step into that place of confidence,

where love reigns and fear is a distant memory.

So when fear tries to creep in, remember: Jesus has already dealt with your punishment.

You are free. You are loved.

Let that truth sink in and transform you.

Let it push out every trace of fear, so you can live boldly and confidently in the love of God.

Stand under a waterfall of grace, where every drop tells you that you’re loved, forgiven, and safe.

It’s knowing deep in your soul that the God of the universe calls you His child, and nothing can change that.

Imagine living every day in that reality.

No more fear of punishment, no more fear of death—just living in the freedom of God’s love.

That’s the invitation of the gospel: to step into that place of confidence, where love reigns and fear is a distant memory.

Illustration

This has been a challenge for me - how the enemy attacks

I love the story of a believing doctor:

There was a a dying man was fearful, even though he was a Christian that walked with Jesus.

He expressed his feelings to his Doctor who was a believer.

The physician was silent, not knowing what to say.

Just then a whining and scratching was heard at the door.

When the doctor opened it, in bounded his big beautiful dog, who often went with him as he made house calls.

The dog was glad to see his master.

Just then it clicked how to comfort his troubled patient, the doctor said,

“My dog has never been in your room before, so he didn’t know what it was like in here.

But he knew I was in here, and that was enough.

In the same way, I’m looking forward to heaven.

I don’t know much about it, but I know my Savior is there.

And that’s all I need to know!”

———————-

Knowing the love of Jesus banishes fear.

But this love isn’t just something we receive;

it’s something we’re called to give.

When fear is gone and love fills its place,

we’re empowered to love others in the same way.

John goes on to tell us that love isn’t merely an emotion we feel but an action we take.

It’s about putting love into practice, showing the world the love we’ve been given.

So, how do we do that?

How do we move from just talking about love to actually living it out in our daily lives?

Look at verse 19

1 John 4:19–21 (ESV)

We love because he first loved us. 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. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Verse 19 is beautifully simple and profoundly deep.

“We love.”

Why? “Because He first loved us.”

God took the first step, not us.

Our love starts with God’s love.

(ABIDE IN HIS LOVE - PRACTICE THE WAY OF JESUS -maybe anger and God meeting you in that)

He loves us, and that love, perfected and abiding in us, overflows into loving words and actions towards others.

The Father’s initiating love is the source and reason for our love for others.

If I’m not loving others as I should, it means I haven’t fully grasped God’s love for me.

That’s the heart of John’s argument in verse 20.

John doesn’t mince words here.

He addresses the hypocrite head-on: “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar.”

John Stott nailed it when he said,

“It’s obviously easier to love and serve a visible man than an invisible God, and if we fail in the easier task, it’s absurd to claim success in the harder.” _John Stott

God calls us to walk in truth, and that means loving Him and loving others.

To love God and love your brother is to obey God’s command.

Verse 21 wraps up John’s teaching on love.

“And we have this command from Him” refers to Jesus’ words about the greatest commandment

Mark 12:30-31

Mark 12:30–31 (ESV)

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Jesus didn’t give us a suggestion or a good idea to consider.

He gave us a command.

If we truly love God, we must love our brother and sister as well.

The vertical and horizontal aspects of love are inseparable.

They’re two sides of the same coin.

Our ability to love God is deeply connected to our love for others.

And this love isn’t sporadic or occasional—it’s continual.

It reflects and demonstrates the love of God for sinners, a love put on full display on the cross when “the Father sent His Son to be the savior of the world(1 John 4:14).

Are you loving?

-Some have loved and given up. (CHALLENGE)

Let’s love like Jesus.

Conclusion

A story I have told before is that of George Matheson,

He was engaged to be married, but learned he would soon be totally blind.

His fiancee said, “I cannot marry a blind man.”

She left him with his dreams shattered.

He thought of taking his life, but instead took hold of himself as he wrote the moving hymn, “O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go.”

"My hymn was composed in a church on the evening of June 6, 1882.

I was at that time alone.

It was the day of my sister's marriage, and the rest of my family were staying overnight in Glasgow.

Something had happened to me which was known only to myself, and which caused me the most severe mental suffering.

The hymn was the fruit of that suffering.

It was the quickest bit of work I ever did in my life.

I had the impression of having it dictated to me by some inward voice than of working it out myself.

I am quite sure that the whole work was completed in five minutes, and equally sure that it never received at my hands any retouching or correction.

I have no natural gift of rhythm.

All the other verses I have written are manufactured articles; this came like a dayspring from on high.

I have never been able to gain once more the same fervor in verse."

Oh, love that will not let me go I rest my weary soul in Thee I give You back this life I owe And in Your ocean depths, its flow May richer, fuller be

Oh, light that follows all my way I yield my flickering torch to Thee And my heart restores its borrowed ray And in Your sunshine's blaze, its day May brighter, fairer be

Oh, joy that seeks me through the pain I cannot close my heart to Thee I trace the rainbow through the rain And feel the promise is not vain That mourn shall tearless be

Oh, cross that lifts and holds my head I dare not ask to fly from thee I lay in dust life's glory dead And from the ground, their blossoms red Life that shall endless be

When I consider that love is God’s very character, how does that change my understanding of how I should love others?

How can I better immerse myself in the gospel daily to remind myself of God's incredible love for me?

How can I actively replace fear with the assurance of God's love in my daily life?

Do I see evidence of fearlessness and an overflowing love for others in my life? If not, what might be hindering these fruits?

PRAYER

Pray for Dream Church - Jacksonville FL

Pastor Cedric:

Increased faith

Stability

Wisdom

Peace

Dream Church:

That we will anticipate and experience Godly momentum

Pray for Garcia family - Baby Sayler

Eat without assistance

Grow in strength

Safely go home

Pray for our Elder Candidates that That faithful elders would be raised up to use Scripture to train the congregation to do the work of ministry.

BENEDICTION

Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, in all your darkness and troubles, remember what you are and have.

You've been loved with an everlasting love, you are supported by everlasting arms, you are recipients of everlasting life, and heirs of an everlasting kingdom all sealed and made sure by the blood of an everlasting covenant.

Amen.

Go in the hope of this truth