First John: 1 John 4:21-The Child of God Who Obeys the Command to Love One Another Loves God Lesson # 186

1 John 4:21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. (ESV)

“And this commandment we have from him” presents the result of the two assertions which are presented in 1 John 4:20.

It is expressing the idea that John and each one of the recipients of First John were under obligation to obey the command which originates from the Father and required them to love each other.

1 John 4:21 Therefore, each one of us are under obligation to this command from Him, namely that the one who at any time does desire to divinely love God (the Father) must divinely love his fellow-believer. (My translation)

The apostle John asserts in 1 John 4:21 that he and each one of the recipients of First John were under obligation to the command from the Father, which required them to divinely love one another in order for them to divinely love Him.

This assertion presents the result of the two assertions which are presented by him in 1 John 4:20.

The first asserts that if anyone enters into making the claim “I love God” and yet does at any time hate his fellow-believer, then he is a liar.

The second presents the reason for the first and states that the one who at any time does not divinely love his fellow-believer whom he has seen causes himself to be totally unable to love God whom he has never seen.

Therefore, these two assertions in 1 John 4:20 teach that if you don’t divinely love your fellow-believer, then you are totally unable to love God.

Now, here in 1 John 4:21, John teaches that God the Father has issued a command to His children which requires that they must love each other in order for them to love Him.

Therefore, verse 21 is presenting the consequence of the two declarations presented in verse 20.

In other words, if the believer is totally unable to love God because of failing to divinely love his fellow-believer, then the result is that loving one’s fellow-believer is absolutely required in order for the believer to love God.

The child of God’s love for his fellow-believer which constitutes loving the Father is divine in quality and character love because it is the result of the child of God responding by faith to the Spirit’s revelation in the gospel that the Father sent His Son to the cross for them when they were His enemies in order that they might possess an eternal relationship and fellowship with Him for all of eternity.

This love for God is the result of the child of God responding by faith to the Father’s love for them which was demonstrated by sending His one and only Son to the cross to suffer a substitutionary spiritual and physical death on the cross.

This self-sacrificial act of love on the cross redeemed them out of the slave market of sin, reconciled them to God and propitiated the Father.

This love for God, which is the result of responding in faith to His love for them, is demonstrated by the child of God obeying the command love one another which originated with the Father.

This command was communicated by His Son through the Spirit to His apostles who in turn then communicated by the Spirit to the church.

God’s attribute of love is reproduced and manifested in the life of the child of God by God the Holy Spirit when the former responds to God’s love for them by accepting by faith this love for them.

This faith is demonstrated by their obedience to the Son’s Spirit inspired command in John 13:34 to love one another as He loves and which command originates with the Father.

Obedience to this command manifests the believer’s love for God according to John 14:15 and 1 John 4:21.

Therefore, when the child of God obeys the command to love their fellow child of God, it is a love which is divine in quality and character because it resides in the character and nature of God and is reproduced in the Christian by the Spirit when they obey this command.

This reproduction of the love of God in the life of the child is called “the fruit of the Spirit” by the apostle Paul in Galatians 5:22.

Therefore, 1 John 4:21 speaks of the child of God obeying the Father’s command to love one another which demonstrates their love for Him.1 John 4:21 is the second time that the command to love one another is mentioned implicitly. The first time was in 1 John 2:7.

1 John 2:7 Beloved, I am by no means providing in writing information for each one of you regarding an unfamiliar command but rather a familiar command, which each of you have been under obligation to obey from the beginning. This familiar command is identical with the teaching each of you have heard. (Author’s translation)

This command to love one another has thus far been mentioned five times in First John.

1 John 3:11 Therefore, this is the message which each one of you heard from the beginning, namely that, each one of us must make it our habit of loving one another. (Author’s translation)

1 John 3:23 Specifically, this is His command: First, that each and every one of us believed in the name, that is His Son, who is Jesus who is the Christ. Secondly that each one of us continue making it our habit of divinely loving one another just as He gave to each one of us this command. (Author’s translation)

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. (Author’s translation)

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)

1 John 4:12 Absolutely no one at any time has observed God (the Father). If any of us at any time does divinely love each other, this God (the Father) is living in fellowship with us. Consequently, His love is accomplishing its purpose in us. (Author’s translation)

It is important to understand that the command to love one another in 1 John 4:21 is not merely a repetition of what has been said before in the epistle, but rather there is a progression of thought taking place here in this verse.

In 1 John 2:7 and 3:11, the command is said to be familiar to the recipients of First John in the sense that they have been taught this command from the beginning of their Christian instruction.

In 1 John 3:23, John asserts that the fulfillment of one’s prayer requests to the Father are based upon obedience to this command.

Then, in 1 John 4:7, John identifies the source of this love which the recipients of First John must continue to manifest in their lives in relation to each other.

Then, in 1 John 4:11, he asserts that they must obey the command to love another because they are obligated to do so because the Father sent His one and only Son to the cross to be the propitiatory sacrifice for each and every sin they would commit during their lifetime.

Then, in 1 John 4:12, the apostle John teaches the recipients of First John that if they continue to obey the command to love one another, then the Father will continue to live in fellowship with them.

By implication he is also teaching that they will personally encounter God the Father who is invisible if they continue to love one another.

Now, here in 1 John 4:20-21, John is teaching that the child of God must obey the command to love one another in order to love God.

In other words, they demonstrate their love for their heavenly Father by loving their fellow-believer.

It is therefore impossible for a child of God to love God, if they do not obey this command.