First John: 1 John 4:10a-Love is Defined by God’s Love for the Believer Lesson # 166

1 John 4:10 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. (ESV)

“In this is love” is composed of the following: (1) preposition en (ἐν), “in” (2) dative neuter singular form of the demonstrative pronoun houtos (οὗτος), “this” (3) third person singular present active indicative form of the verb eimi (εἰμί), “is” (4) articular nominative feminine singular form of the noun agapē (ἀγάπη), “love.”

The demonstrative pronoun houtos means “this” and is referring to the assertion contained in the two hoti clauses, which follow it and the epexegetical clause attached to the second hoti clause: (1) “not that we have loved God” (2) “but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (3) “and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

It is the object of the preposition en which is a marker of means which indicates the means by which love is not defined as well as the means by which it is defined.

The noun agapē means “divine-love” and is referring to the concept of love without reference to whether or not it is an attribute of God or a virtue of the believer since John is seeking to define this word.

This is indicated by the fact that he uses it in relation to both the believer loving the Father and the Father loving the believer.

The verb eimi means “to define” since in this context the word pertains to identifying the essential nature of something or making a statement which expresses the essential nature of something.

“Not that we have loved God us” is composed of the following: (1) emphatic negative adverb ou (οὔ), “not” (2) conjunction hoti (ὅτι), “that” (3) nominative first person plural form of the personal pronoun ego (ἐγώ), “we” (4) first person plural perfect active indicative form of the verb agapaō (ἀγαπάω), “have loved” (5) articular accusative masculine singular form of the noun theos (θεός), “God.”

The conjunction hoti is employed with the indicative mood of the verb agapaō, “have loved” in order to form an appositional clause which means that it is defining what love is absolutely not.

The emphatic negative adverb ou, “not” refers to a negation which is absolute and not subject to conditions or exceptions and speaks of something that is not subject to dispute or challenge, which would express the idea that “by no means” or “absolutely never” is love defined by the believer loving the Father.

The personal pronoun ego means “we” since the word refers to John and the recipients of First John and all God’s children as a corporate unit.

The verb agapaō means “to love” and pertains to the believer’s love for the Father and this would indicate that the believer as the subject performs the action of loving the Father.

The noun theos refers to the Father which is indicated by the word’s articular construction which in the New Testament commonly signifies the first member of the Trinity unless otherwise indicated by the context.

Furthermore, the articular construction of the word is anaphoric which indicates that it is retaining the same meaning and referent here in 1 John 4:10 since the word’s referent in 1 John 4:9 was the Father.

The perfect tense of the verb agapaō is an intensive perfect, which is used to emphasize the results or present state produced by a past action.

The present state in our context are John and the recipients of First John loving God the Father and the past action is the believer obeying the command to love one another since obedience to this command demonstrates the believer’s love for the Son and thus the Father (cf. John 14:15).

“But that he loved us” is composed of the following: (1) conjunction alla (ἀλλά), “but” (2) conjunction hoti (ὅτι), “that” (3) nominative third person masculine singular form of the intensive personal pronoun autos (αὐτός), “he” (4) third person singular aorist active indicative form of the verb agapaō (ἀγαπάω), “loved” (5) accusative first person plural form of the personal pronoun ego (ἐγώ), “us.”

The strong adversative conjunction alla is marking an emphatic contrast between the two hoti clauses and thus forming an emphatic contrast between the believer loving the Father and the Father loving the believer.

The conjunction hoti is employed with the indicative mood of the verb agapaō, “loved” in order to form an appositional clause which means that it is defining what love is.

The nominative third person masculine singular form of the intensive personal pronoun autos means “He Himself” emphasizing that the definition love is God the Father’s love for the believer.

Here it is emphasizing that the definition of love is the Father’s love for the believer and is marking a contrast between the believer’s love for the Father and the Father’s love for the believer.

The personal pronoun ego means “each one of us” referring to John and the recipients of First John and is used in a distributive sense emphasizing no exceptions expressing the idea that God loves each one of them.

1 John 4:10 Love is defined by means of this: By no means that we are loving God (the Father) but rather that He Himself in contrast to us loved each and every one of us. Specifically, He dispatched with authority His Son to be the propitiatory sacrifice for each and every one of our sins. (Author’s translation)

The apostle John in 1 John 4:10 defines in emphatic terms what love is not and what it is or in other words, he is emphatically identifying the essential nature of love and what it is absolutely not.

He does this by making three assertions, which are contained in two hoti clauses and an epexegetical clause which advances upon the second hoti clause.

The first assertion contained in the first hoti clause, which is an emphatic negative declaration, asserts that the definition of love is by no means that John and the recipients of First John were loving God the Father.

They would demonstrate this love by their obedience to the Son’s command to love one another since He asserts that obedience to this command demonstrates their love for Him and thus it would demonstrate love for the Father who sent the Son (cf. John 14:15).

The second assertion that is contained in the second hoti clause expresses an emphatic contrast between the believer’s love for the Father and the Father’s love for each and every believer.

It asserts that love, in contrast to the believer’s love for the Father, is defined by the Father’s love for the believer.

The third assertion appears in the epexegetical clause which defines the meaning of the emphatic adversative clause.

It asserts that love is defined by means of the Father dispatching with authority into the human race His Son to be the propitiation for each and every one of the sins committed by the believer during the course of their lifetime.

Therefore, John is teaching in emphatic terms that the definition of love is absolutely not defined by the believer’s love for the Father but rather it is defined by the Father’s love for each and every believer or in other words, love absolutely never originated with the believer but rather originated with the Father.

So therefore, the apostle John is teaching in 1 John 4:10 that this love, which each and every believer is obligated to practice with their fellow-believer, is defined by the Father sending His Son to the cross to be the propitiatory sacrifice for each and every sin committed by each and every believer during the course of their lifetime.

The apostle John is not writing about how love was manifested.

There are two factors which indicate this quite clearly.

First, the believer can and does manifest this love when they are obedient to the Spirit inspired command of the Lord Jesus Christ to love one another.

Secondly, he emphatically asserts in 1 John 4:10 that the love he is speaking of, is emphatically not the believer’s love for the Father.

Rather, John is seeking to define the nature or essence of love, which he wants the recipients of First John to continue to practice when interacting with each other.

Love is defined by the act of the Father in sending His one and only Son to the cross to propitiate His holiness which demanded that sinners experience His righteous indignation as a result of committing sins against Him.

The human race would have no knowledge or personal contact with God’s love unless He revealed it to the human race.

Remember, John taught that in his gospel that no person has ever seen God at any time (cf. John 1:18; 1 John 4:12), but Jesus Christ, His one and only Son explained Him to the human race (John 1:14-18).

Therefore, every word and action of Jesus Christ manifested the character and nature of the invisible God.

Thus, Jesus Christ’s substitutionary spiritual and physical deaths on the cross manifested that which was invisible to the human race, namely God’s love and specifically depth of this love.

This sacrificial act thus serves to define for the human race the nature and character or essence of God’s love.

In other words, this love was manifested by this self-sacrificial act of both the Father and the Son.

Consequently, the love of God is not defined by the believer loving the Father.

But rather, this love is defined by the Father loving the believer and everyone in the human race through the act of sending His one and only Son to the cross to suffer His wrath in the place of every sinner in history-past, present and future.

The believer loves the Father because the Father first loved the believer as demonstrated by sending His Son to the cross to be the propitiation for each and every one of the sins they committed against Him (cf. 1 John 4:19).