The Origin of Christian Love

1 John 4:7–12 ESV

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 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. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

Many agree that if we could just love one another, our world would be different. But whose version of love would we use? Some think of love in a purely romantic sense, while others are content to say, “live and let live” as their expression of love. When we read the term love in the Bible, we should be careful not to fill it with our ideas about love but let the text tell us what love is. As we look at John’s letter, we read that God is love. And God has expressed His love by sending His son Jesus to become the propitiation for our sins.

A Community in need of love

The command to love is for the Christian community. If you recall, the community of John’s day experienced false teachers who likewise lived in hate toward others within the community. The gnostic teachers contributed to a divided community. (Gnostic: those who emphasized that special knowledge came through special teachers, enabling the believer to become “more spiritual.”) Those teachers eventually left the church but also left a painful situation. How should the church go forward in light of its problems? John’s encouragement is twofold: hold on to the truth of the Gospel and love one another. God’s untainted truth is foundational to our message. Our message is expressed in words and deeds, especially in love for one another. In this letter, John has previously mentioned loving fellow Christians six times, and he will go on to mention eleven times in total. Don’t be upset with John. Where does this love come from? And how should we fulfill this important command?

Love comes from God

In this letter, John has in mind a love that we express to those in the family of God. Regardless of painful experiences in your personal family or in churches, God intends for your experience in the family of God to be engulfed with a different kind of love. This love does not originate in ourselves; rather, it comes directly from God. If we want to know what love is, then we need to know God, for God is love. John is not saying that love and God are the same things, but that love only exists because it comes from the Creator. Love originates from God, and the opposite is not true. God does not originate from love.

When we read scripture, we will discover that God is the Creator. He does not have a beginning or end. He is eternal and self-sufficient. Love is an attribute or characteristic of God’s eternal nature. And every other attribute, such as His holiness, justice, and mercy, can be characterized by love. His justice is loving just as his holiness is loving. We also see love expressed within the Trinity There may be distinctions of the persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), yet there is perfect unity and relationship. God expressed love in the creation of the world, for He set it in order and sustains it. But John has in mind a particular moment within history that the believers are to recognize and copy in the church. If we want to know what love is, we need to look at God.

We could also say that a person never truly knows love until they get to know God. And as we come to know the God from whom love comes, we know how He loves us.

Love - God Sent His Son

The Bible teaches us that God created all things. It teaches that humans, through Adam, inherited a natural tendency to sin and a separation from the Creator. Therefore, all people are born sinners separated from God. But because of His amazing love, God provided a solution through Jesus. Even though the Father sent the Son, Jesus willingly humbled himself to come to earth. Within the Incarnation, we see the cooperation, unity, and activity of the Trinity. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are of the same essence that is unique only to God. Within the godhead of the Trinity, there is perfect fellowship and cooperation

The Lexham Bible Dictionary Introduction

These three are not identical; they interact with one another and their identities are constituted with respect to one another

A key text for understanding the Incarnation comes from the letter to the Philippians.

Philippians 2:5–8 ESV

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Although Jesus could rightfully claim a Divine Nature, he willingly lowered himself to become human. He did not “count equality with God a thing to be grasped.” Jesus was God in essence, glory, and power but did not “grasp” it, a term often used to describe something that rightfully belongs to someone, especially in a battle. Through the humbling act of the incarnation, Christ offered Himself as the ultimate solution for our sin. John tells it this way, “so that we might live through Him.

If we are to learn love from God, our first lesson is to recognize that love involves bringing people back together that were formerly separated. Humility is an important part of love. If Jesus had not humbled himself, we would not know the blessings of forgiveness and salvation.

Jesus became our Propitiation

This brings us to the next expression of God’s love. God’s love is expressed in Jesus becoming the propitiation for our sins. The term “propitiation” is not a term we use in everyday language. The concept is ancient, and it may even offend our modern concepts of justice. Let’s look at a brief definition, then look at the context of propitiation from the Bible.

Propitiation - a sacrifice and removal of Wrath. It is the covering of sin so that it is no longer remembered nor an issue as something that separates two people.

The idea that God has wrath may offend our modern notions of God. We may picture someone who has lost control of their anger and emotions to become destructive. Is this how we should view God? First, we should recognize that God is not like us. He is Creator, and we are his creation. He is all-powerful and eternal; we are not. He is greater, and we must give Him the proper respect, honor, and worship that is due unto Him. Secondly, God is able to express anger or wrath that does not violate his other attributes. God is holy; therefore, his anger is holy and just. God is loving; therefore, his anger is loving and without sin. No human on earth can exhibit these attributes like God. Thirdly, we should acknowledge that there are situations where wrath is the only appropriate response to a great offense. Consider the deliberate killing of innocent children by an attacking military force; we should express anger toward such things. Is our sin really that bad that God should express wrath? Can I really believe in a God who expresses wrath toward sin? If we erode the concept of God’s justice, we eventually eliminate our own concept of justice. In reality, we become god and decide what is right and wrong.

The concept of propitiation is deeply rooted in the Day of Atonement. Because of the sin of the people, God provided a way to keep His people close to Himself. They were sinful, unfaithful, unjust, and inconsistent, but God chose to have a sacrifice bear the wrath of sin so that the people could experience His mercy. The sins of the people were covered by the blood of the sacrifice. John affirms that Jesus fulfilled the role of the sacrifice of the Day of Atonement. But this time, it was the final sacrifice. It was not the blood of an animal but the body and blood of Jesus Christ. His sacrifice turned the wrath toward our sin into forgiveness for those who place their trust in him.

Although we are not God and offer a sacrifice again to restore a relationship with others, we can look to God’s example of providing grace as a loving action. We can express grace and mercy to others.

Imitating our God

If we want to know what love looks like, then we must look at God. The full picture of love comes into view when we recognize that God saw the situation of separation and acted in a way to solve the problem of sin. Because sinners can never solve their own problem of sin, God gave us Jesus to become the solution. Jesus had every right to refuse the solution of humbling himself, but he willingly came to earth in the most humbling way as a newborn infant. The God who created the universe out of nothing except by the words of his mouth not only took on flesh, but he lived life in obedience to the Father and gave himself as the sacrifice that solved the problem of sin, wrath, and separation. This is generous love. God gives it to people who don’t deserve it but even refuse to honor, obey, and love him in return. This is amazing love. And it is the basis for our love within the Christian community. If we do not express love like God, then how can we say we truly know Him? Our ability to love as God does seems like an impossible task but we can take God’s example and express it in similar ways.

Sampling God’s Love

Early rap and hip-hop music were often built from “samples” short sections of recordings repeated seamlessly to form a longer song.

I learned how to sample in the 1980s. In order to find new samples, I started collecting records and CDs. I not only took snippets from the music, but I learned to appreciate the whole songs.

We can take the same approach with God’s love. We can learn of the incarnation, and how it led to the propitiation of sin. We can take that snapshot of humility within the incarnation and begin to make our song of love toward others with it. Think about it, conflict resolution is often hindered because one person is too proud to humble themselves.

And consider sampling the generosity of God. If God has given us generous grace, should we not be generously gracious to others? Jesus would agree. In fact, he states that same concept and gives a strong warning to it. In the prayer Jesus taught to the disciples, he declared. Matthew 6:14-15

Matthew 6:14–15 ESV

14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

And later in Matthew 18, Jesus told a parable about the unforgiving servant. The servant had his tremendous debt canceled but when someone owed him a smaller debt, he refused. The parable ends with this judgement toward the unforgiving person.

Matthew 18:32–35 ESV

32 Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ 34 And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. 35 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

If we are to sample our God, then we will have to do things that may cause us to put others before us. It may require us to give grace and forgiveness to those who do not deserve it or will not appreciate it. But that is the path God has determined for those who follow Him. We may not have our expressions of humility and generosity received well, but that is not our responsibility. Our call is to be like our God and leave the results up to Him.