First John: 1 John 4:10c-Another Reason to Obey the Command to Love One Another and for the Incarnation and Hypostatic Union Lesson # 168

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)

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)

1 John 4:10 echoes John’s teaching in 1 John 4:7-9.

In fact, 1 John 4:7-10 presents a description and definition of love, which the believer is to demonstrate by obeying the command to love one another.

1 John 4:7 Beloved, let each one of us continue to divinely love one another because this love is a characteristic originating from God (the Father). Consequently, the one who at any time does divinely love has been fathered by God (the Father) and as a result they know God (the Father) experientially. 8 The one who at any time does not practice divine-love never enters into knowing God (the Father) experientially because God (the Father) is divine-love. 9 By means of this, God’s (the Father’s) love entered into the state of being revealed because of each one of us: namely that, God (the Father) dispatched into the world with authority His one and only Son in order that each one of us would conduct our lives through Him. (Author’s translation)

John’s teaching in 1 John 4:10 is also connected to 1 John 4:7-9 for another reason since like these verses, verse 10 presents another reason why the recipients of First John must continue to make it their habit of obeying the command to love one another and which command he issues in 1 John 4:7.

As we noted, in 1 John 4:7, the apostle John implicitly issues the recipients of First John the command to love one another.

He then states the reason for obeying the command is that this love is a characteristic originating from God the Father.

Based upon this assertion, he presents the result of love originating from the character and nature of the Father.

He asserts that the one who at any time does divinely love has been fathered by God and as a result they know God experientially, i.e. they are experiencing fellowship with Him.

Then, in verse 8, John asserts that the one who at any time does not practice divine-love never enters into knowing God the Father experientially.

He then gives the reason for this assertion by stating that God the Father is divine-love.

John uses this as the reason for this previous assertion because he wants the recipients of First John to reflect the character and nature of their heavenly Father.

If, as to His nature, He is love, then God’s children must be characterized by love. John is actually teaching in 1 John 4:8 what he teaches in 1 John 4:7 but from the perspective of disobeying the command to love one another.

Both passages teach that the child of God must be characterized by love because this love characterizes their heavenly Father.

Thus, they will be characterized by this love by their continued obedience to this command to love one another.

By implication, John is also teaching that obedience to this command demonstrates that they are children of God.

Next, in 1 John 4:9, the apostle John asserts that God the Father’s love entered into the state of having been revealed because of John and the recipients of First John and in fact, because of the entire human race.

He then asserts that the Father did this by means of dispatching into the human race with authority His one and only Son.

John then employs a purpose-result clause that emphasizes that the Father’s eternal purpose for the incarnation and subsequent hypostatic union of His one and only Son, Jesus Christ has been accomplished and is being accomplished through John and the recipients of First John and all of God’s children.

It is accomplished because they were experiencing fellowship with Him through obedience to His Word and in particular by obeying the command to love one another.

Therefore, by obeying the command to love one another, the child of God would be imitating God who exercised His attribute of love on behalf of the child of God when He dispatched His one and only Son into the human race in order that they live through His Son and thus imitate both Father and Son.

Now, here in 1 John 4:10, John asserts that love is defined by the Father’s love for the believer which He demonstrated by sending His Son to the cross to be the propitiation for each and every one of the sins committed by each and every believer when the believer was an enemy of God.

Therefore, we can see from our study of 1 John 4:7-10 that these verses contain eight reasons why John and the recipients of First John and all God’s children for that matter must obey the command to love one another.

The first appears in verse 7 and asserts that this love originates from God the Father’s character and nature.

In other words, obedience to this command is consistent with the character of their heavenly Father.

The second also appears in verse 7 and asserts that obedience to the command to love one another demonstrates that a person is a child of God.

The third reason is that by obeying this command they will know the Father experientially or in other words, they will experience fellowship with Him.

The fourth reason appears in verse 8 and asserts that if they don’t obey this command, they won’t know the Father experientially or won’t experience fellowship with Him.

The fifth reason also appears in verse 8 and asserts that God as to His nature, is this love.

Thus, if they want to reflect the fact that they are children of God, they must obey this command to love.

The sixth reason is found in verse 9 and teaches that the child of God must obey the command to love one another because this fulfills the Father’s eternal purpose for sending His one and only Son into the human race and which eternal purpose is that they would conduct their lives through His Son.

By obeying this command, they would be experiencing fellowship with the Father.

Consequently, they would be conducting their lives through Jesus Christ, which refers to experiencing fellowship with God.

Jesus taught in John 17 that eternal life is defined by knowing the Father experientially which refers to personal encountering the Father through learning and obeying His Word and being affected by this encounter.

This in turn results in practical spiritual wisdom and more of the character of Jesus Christ and thus more of the Father’s character since Jesus Christ is equal to the Father in that they both have inherently the same attributes in equal measure.

The seventh reason also is found in verse 9 in that it teaches that obedience to the command to love one another will enable them to reflect God’s attribute of love.

Obedience to this command is equivalent to conducting one’s life through Jesus Christ who issued this command to the church, His body.

This command originates with the character and nature of God since He as to His nature is love.

Thus, obedience to this command reflects the Father’s love which was first demonstrated to the human race through the incarnation, hypostatic union, death and resurrection of the Father’s one and only Son, Jesus Christ.

Lastly, the eighth reason appears in verse 10.

The believer is obligated to love their fellow-believer because God exercised His love when they were His enemy by 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.

1 John 3:16 teaches this exact same thing.

1 John 3:16 By means of this, each one of us knows experientially that which constitutes divine-love, namely that, He Himself, the one and only, laid down His life on behalf of each and every one of us. Consequently, each and every one of us is obligated to lay down our lives for the benefit of our fellow-believer. (Author’s translation)

Therefore, John is teaching in 1 John 4:7-10 that each and every one of God’s children must love each other because they are obligated to do so since God loved them when they were His enemies by sending His Son to the cross to be the propitiation for each and every sin committed by them.

Not only is 1 John 4:10 presenting another reason why the believer must obey the command to love one another but it is also presenting one of the purposes of the incarnation and subsequent hypostatic union of the Father’s one and only Son, Jesus Christ, namely, to propitiate the Father’s holiness.

The Son of God became a human being and suffered a substitutionary spiritual and physical death on the cross in order to propitiate or satisfy the demands of the Father’s holiness which required that each and every human being-past, present and future must be experience His wrath because of the sins committed by them.