First John: 1 John 4:11-The Children of God Are Obligated to Love One Another Because the Father Loved Them Lesson # 169

1 John 4:11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (ESV)

“Beloved” is the vocative masculine singular form of the adjective agapētos (ἀγαπητός), which expresses the close intimate personal relationship that existed between the recipients of this epistle who were believers residing in the Roman province of Asia and the apostle John as well as with the Trinity.

It also expresses the fact that they were the recipients and beneficiary of God’s love as a result of accepting by faith His one and only Son, Jesus Christ as the propitiatory sacrifice for each and every one of the sins committed during their lifetime.

“If” is the conditional particle ei (εἰ), which introduces a protasis of a first class condition that indicates the assumption of truth for the sake of argument.

“God” is the articular nominative masculine singular form of the noun theos (θεός), which refers to the Father which is indicated by the articular construction of this word, 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 the word appeared in the immediate preceding context, namely, 1 John 4:10.

Thus, it is retaining the same meaning and referent here in 1 John 4:11 since the word’s referent in 1 John 4:10 was the Father.

“Loved” is the third person singular aorist active indicative form of the verb agapaō (ἀγαπάω), which refers to the exercise of the Father’s attribute of love in relation to the child of God.

Specifically, the word refers to the Father’s self-sacrificial act in dispatching His one and only Son Jesus Christ to the cross in order to be the propitiatory sacrifice for each and every sin committed by the child of God during the course of their lifetime.

“Us” is the accusative first person plural form of the personal pronoun ego (ἐγώ), which is referring to John and the recipients of First John and all God’s children as a corporate unit.

It is also used in a distributive sense emphasizing no exceptions expressing the idea that God dispatched His Son to the cross for “each and every one of them” in order to be the propitiatory sacrifice for each and every sin committed by them during the course of their lifetime.

“So” is the adverb houtos (οὕτως), which means “in this manner, in this way” and refers to the preceding epexegetical statement in 1 John 4:10, which identifies the manner in which the Father loved each and every one of His children.

“Also” is the conjunction kai (καί), which is employed with the adverb of manner houtos, “in this same manner” in order to show the “correlation” between the Father loving His children and the children loving each other.

It is “comparative” because it “comparing” God the Father’s sacrificial act of sending His one and only Son to the propitiatory sacrifice for every sin committed by His children during their lifetimes with His children’s obligation to sacrificially love each other.

“We” is the nominative first person plural form of the personal pronoun ego (ἐγώ), which is emphasizing the obligation of each and every one of God’s children to love each other in the same manner in which the Father loved each and every one of them.

Secondly, it is contrasting the Father’s act of love with the His children loving each other in the sense that the former’s act of love was superior to the latter’s since the latter’s love for each other is a response and expression of the former’s love for them.

“Ought” is the first person plural present active indicative form of the verb opheilō (ὀφείλω), which means “to owe, to be obligated to, to be under obligation to meet certain requirements.”

The word expresses the fact that each and every one of God’s children without exception are obligated to love each other in the same manner in which the Father loved each one of them.

“To love” is the present active infinitive form of the verb agapaō (ἀγαπάω), which pertains to the function of God’s attribute of love being reproduced in His children by the Holy Spirit when they obey the Lord Jesus Christ’s Spirit inspired command in John 13:34 and 15:12 to love one another as He loves them.

Specifically, it speaks of God’s love being reproduced in His children by the Holy Spirit when they obey the various one another commands recorded in the New Testament which define what it means to love one’s fellow-believer.

“One another” is the accusative masculine plural form of the reciprocal pronoun allēlōn (ἀλλήλων), which is used with reference to the relationship between God’s children with each other.

Specifically, it is used with reference to the relationship between John and the recipients of First John and the recipients of First John with each other.

The word denotes that there was to be a mutual exchange between all of them in that they were to love each other as the Lord loved them.

1 John 4:11 Beloved, if and let us assume that it is true for the sake of argument that God (the Father) loved each and every one of us in this manner and we all agree that He did, then each and every one of us are obligated to continue making it our habit of divinely loving one another. (Author’s translation)

The apostle John employs a first class conditional statement in order to solemnly persuade the recipients of First John to continue to making it their habit of obeying the command to love one another.

He is also presenting the correlation between the Father loving His children and His children loving each other.

In other words, he is comparing God the Father’s sacrificial act of sending His Son to the cross in order to be the propitiatory sacrifice for every sin committed by His children to His children’s obligation to sacrificially love each other.

Therefore, John is emphasizing the obligation of each and every one of God’s children to love each other in the same manner in which the Father loved each and every one of them.

He is also contrasting the Father’s act of love with the His children loving each other in the sense that the former’s act of love was superior to the latter’s since the latter’s is the response and expression of the former’s love for them.

As we noted, the apostle John employs a first class conditional statement, which indicates the assumption of truth for the sake of argument.

The idea behind the first class condition is not “since” but rather, “if-and let us assume that it is true for the sake of argument that, then...”

Here the protasis is “if and let us assume that it is true for the sake of argument that God (the Father) loved each and every one of us in this manner.”

Specifically, it is “if and let assume that it is true for the sake argument that God the Father loved the child of God by sending His Son to the propitiatory sacrifice for every sin committed by them during their lifetime.”

This is a responsive first class condition, which is expressed by the phrase “and we all agree that He did.”

This would mean that John and the recipients of First John would all agree with this premise God loved them by sending His Son to be the propitiatory sacrifice for their sins, which is communicated by John in 1 John 4:10 as well as 1 John 3:16.

The apodosis is “then each and every one of us are obligated to continue making it our habit of divinely loving one another.”

So therefore, the apostle John employs the first class condition as a tool of persuasion which means that he is attempting to persuade the recipients of First John to continue making it their habit of divinely loving another.

He could have simply issued the command to love one another.

However, he sought to persuade them to continue loving each other by presenting them the Father’s self-less, self-sacrificial love in sending His Son to the cross for them as the motivation or reason why they were to do so.

He seeking to persuade them to continue to love each other out of appreciation and thanksgiving for God sacrificing His Son on the cross for them.

“In this manner” (adverb of manner houtos) emphasizes that the children of God must love each other self-sacrificially as the Father and the Son did toward each of them.

In other words, it emphasizes that their motivation and power to love each other is based upon God’s self-sacrificial act of love in sending His Son to the cross for them.

Now, this is the third time in First John that the apostle John explicitly mentions the Lord Jesus Christ’s command in John 13:34 and 15:12 to love one another.

The first time he mentions this command explicitly is 1 John 3:11 and then he mentions it a second time in 1 John 3:23 and then a third time in 1 John 4:7.

Lastly, 1 John 4:11 echoes 1 John 3:16.

The difference between the two verses is that 1 John 4:11 presents the Father’s love for the child of God as the motivation and the basis for continuing to obey the command to love one another whereas 1 John 3:16 presents the Son’s act of love for the child of God as the motivation and basis for obeying this command