1 John 4:7-12

1 John 4:7–21 (NLT)

7 Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 10 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. 12 No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.

These few verses exude the idea of loving one another.

In vs 7 he uses the phrase as an exhortation. let us continue to love one another

In vs 11 he uses it as a statement of our duty. we surely ought to love each other.

In vs 12 he uses it as a hypothesis. if we love each other

In verses 7-8

He begins by this exhortation that we continue to love one another,

He then compares loving with knowing God. If we love we are a child of God and we know God

The reverse is also true….if we do not love, we do not know God!

Then he tells us why this is true, because “God is Love!”

A couple important things to know about God is Love.

1. God loves because he IS love! not vise versa - God is love because he loves

If this was true, then anyone who loves could “love” because the love.

2. While God is love, Love is not God!

You could argue that love is God if it is perfect love from God, but God is the determining factor here not love!

3. Love is the essence of God, not just what he does! The difference is important.

Because God’s essence is love all he does comes from love.

Including his discipline

including his wrath

Including his blessings

Including his judgements

Including his forgiveness

In Verses 9-10

We see the demonstration of God’s love…vs 9 - God showed how much he loved us

sending his one and only son…

The phrase one and only son does not give the best description of the individual being described here.

The greek word for one and only (or begotten in NKJV) is “monogenes”

It appears 9 times in the NT

Luke 7:12 “A funeral procession was coming out as he approached the village gate. The young man who had died was a widow’s only son, and a large crowd from the village was with her.”

Luke 8:42 “42 His only daughter, who was about twelve years old, was dying. As Jesus went with him, he was surrounded by the crowds.”

Luke 9:38 “38 A man in the crowd called out to him, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, my only child.”

John 1:14 “14 So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.”

John 1:18 “18 No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.”

John 3:16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:18 “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.

Here in 1 John 4:9

and also in Hebrews 11:17 “17 It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham, who had received God’s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac,”

But was Isaac Abraham’s only son? Ishmael was born and a son of Abraham, maybe there is something more to monogenes than just being one and only!!!

The demonstration of God’s love, the demonstration of real love is that the Son was given to take away sins.

The idea behind real love, is self sacrificing. Meaning that we gain nothing from that love.

When we get to vs 19 we will realize our love is not this kind of true love because it is a cause and effect love.

We love because he first loved.

In Verses 11-12

Now we see why we should love!

Since God loved us that much…sending his son to die for us…we should love one another.

God is not seen, but he is seen when we love each other!

Full expression is the idea that our love is fully expressed when and only when we love others brought on by God’s love for us as displayed in the sacrificial life of Jesus!