Apostle John’s Three Letters . . . 1 John 4:7–11

   The Meaning of Love

What if we’ve been looking for love in the wrong direction? We often measure love by what someone does for us, but John points us first to what God did for us: He sent his Son into the world as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. In 1 John 4:7–11, love isn’t merely a feeling we’re asked to produce; it’s God’s gift that we’re called to receive and share. But if God loved us that much, can we really claim to know him while withholding love from a fellow believer?

Last week’s study focused on Apostle John’s six-verse passage about “discernment,” the ability to recognize the difference between truth and falsehood. John urged his readers to test spiritual claims rather than accept them merely because they sounded spiritual. Now, having shown them how to recognize the Spirit of truth, he turns to the love that should mark those who know God.

John immediately follows with a teaching on “God’s Love and Ours.” Love doesn’t originate with us. It comes from God, who showed his love by sending his one and only Son into the world as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Because God is love, those who know him will reflect his love in their relationships with one another.

As we saw in 1 John 1:1–7, believers are God’s children, known by their relationship with Jesus and their love for one another. John returns to that theme repeatedly: in 2:7–11, 3:11–18, 23, and again in 4:7–5:3. He wants his readers to see that love for fellow believers isn’t an optional addition to faith; it’s an essential expression of belonging to God’s family.

John states the matter plainly: “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” (4:8). That statement calls us to examine our lives in light of God’s standard of love. But John doesn’t begin with a demand that we manufacture love by our own effort. He begins with God’s love for us — a love revealed at the cross and then shared through us.

Love Comes from God Alone (1 John 4:7–8)

Is there someone you’re struggling to love — someone for whom it seems impossible to summon affection? Knowing that we should love doesn’t automatically enable us to do it. But God doesn’t command us to love while leaving us to manage on our own. Through the Holy Spirit, he pours his love into our hearts, making it possible for his children to love one another (Romans 5:5).

First John 4:7–8 and Romans 5:5 tie together beautifully: Romans explains how God’s love comes to dwell in believers; John explains that this love reveals God’s nature and must flow outward to others. In short, Romans 5:5 is the inward work of the Spirit while 1 John 4:7–8 is the outward evidence and ethical fruit. In effect, Romans 5:5 is God’s love deposited in us by the Spirit; 1 John 4:7–8 is God’s love displayed through us toward one another. The love John commands is the very love Paul says the Spirit pours into our hearts.

John returns to a theme he’s emphasized throughout his letter: love for fellow believers. He’s already connected it with walking in the light (2:7–11) and with passing from death to life (3:10–18). Now he grounds that love even more deeply in God’s own character. Love comes from God because God is love.

When John says, “for love comes from God,” he identifies God as the source of genuine love. This isn’t something believers must manufacture by willpower. Through new birth and the Spirit’s presence, God enables his children to reflect his loving character. Jealousy, hatred, envy, and malice don’t come from him; they belong to the world’s way of living.

Verse 7b makes a positive claim: “Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God” (enlarge image). Loving others provides evidence of a real relationship with God. John doesn’t mean that believers become perfect in love or that every act of human kindness proves someone is a Christian. Rather, a genuine relationship with God produces a growing pattern of love.

Verse 8 clearly states the same truth, albeit negatively: “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” A person may show natural affection toward family, friends, or those in need, yet still lack the God-given love John describes. John’s concern is the love that flows from knowing God and reflects his character. If someone claims to belong to God but shows no love for fellow believers, that claim doesn’t match God’s nature.

John’s logic is straightforward: God’s nature is love, so his children should reflect that nature. Without love, a claim to know God is only a label, not a lived reality. John isn’t asking whether we can produce perfect affection for everyone; he’s asking whether God’s love is increasingly shaping the way we treat our brothers and sisters in Christ. John exhorts us believers to follow Jesus’ commands to “be loving to others” as he continues to loves us. He taught his disciples then, “Love one another as I have loved you” (John 13:34a).

The type of love that John writes of is derived from the ancient Greek agape, which gotquestions.org defines as “… always shown by what it does. God’s love is displayed most clearly at the cross…. God’s agape love is unmerited, gracious, and constantly seeking the benefit of the ones He loves.” It’s a self-giving type of love that gives without any expectation of reimbursement or compensation — it’s God’s divine kind of love.

We’re to love others with agape love, whether they’re fellow believers (John 13:34) or bitter enemies (Matthew 5:44). Jesus gave the Parable of the Good Samaritan as an example of sacrifice for the sake of others, even for those who may care nothing at all for us. Agape love as modeled by Christ isn’t based on a feeling; rather, it’s a determined act of the will, a joyful resolve to put the welfare of others above our own. It’ because of God’s love toward us that we believers are able to love one another.

Apostle John is saying that loving others is evidence of truly knowing God; if a person claims to belong to God but does not love people, that claim doesn’t match God’s own nature. In plain terms this is John’s logic: God’s nature is love, so God’s children should reflect that nature. Without that love, the claim of being his child is only a label, not a reality. His point isn’t that a believer becomes perfect at loving, but that a real relationship with God produces a growing pattern of love, because “God is love.”

American theologian Albert Barnes wrote this about “God is love” in his Notes on the New Testament:

John will soon show us how fully God demonstrated that love: He sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him, and gave him as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. God’s love isn’t merely a declaration; it’s an action with a cost.

How God Showed His Love Among Us (4:9–11)

John now shows us where love began. It didn’t begin with our devotion to God; it began with his love for us. He sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him. The language recalls John 3:16, where God’s love for the world leads him to give his one and only Son.

The phrase “one and only Son” emphasizes Jesus’ unique relationship with Father God who didn’t send an angel, a messenger, or a temporary representative: He gave his Son. John wants his readers to see the costliness of God’s love: The Father sent the one who is uniquely his own.

John uses the Greek word agape. At the time, this wasn't a standard, poetic word for romantic or brotherly affection; it was a choice-driven, sacrificial love. By stating that God initiated love while we were indifferent, John asserts that true love exists entirely independent of the worthiness of the recipient.

Verse 9 (enlarge image) also tells us why God sent him: “that we might live through him.” Jesus’ coming wasn’t merely an example of love; it was the means by which God gives life. Through his Son’s saving work, those who believe in him receive eternal life.

Verse 10 (enlarge image) deepens the point. John defines love not by our affection for God, but by God’s love for us: “not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” God’s love took action while we were still sinners. It addressed our greatest need — our sin — by providing the sacrifice that deals with it.

John’s statement overturns our usual way of thinking. We tend to measure love by what we feel or what we do. God measures it by what he gave. Before we loved him, he loved us; before we could make ourselves acceptable, he provided the sacrifice for our sins.

This is why John can command us to love one another. Verse 11 doesn’t ask us to create love from nothing. It says, “Since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” God’s love for us becomes both the motive and the pattern for our love. We love because he first loved us, and we love others in the way he has loved us.

Steven J. Cole helpfully connects this passage with the previous one. In 4:1–6, John develops the command to believe in the name of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. Now, in 4:7–1, he develops the command to love one another. The reason is clear: God is love, and he showed that love by sending his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Cole also reminds us that this love must extend to people who aren’t easy to love. John points us to the supreme illustration of love — the Father sending his Son to die for our sins — and then calls us to love one another in light of that love.

Closing Considerations (adapted from Dr. Charles Stanley, “The Unconditional Love of God”)

One of the biggest struggles many people face is the feeling that the Lord couldn’t possibly love them. Yet today’s reading clearly tells us he does. God hasn’t merely said so with words; he’s given us ample proof. He sent his Son to redeem us from sin so that we could be forgiven and reconciled to God, and then live with him forever. Why, with such evidence, do so many of us still doubt his love? [See and appreciate the truth of Jesus’ desire to forgive our sins by watching this BibleProject video titled “Khata: Sin”]

Perhaps the reason is that we’re looking at his love from our own limited perspective. Since human beings can’t love unconditionally, we may doubt that the Lord can. Worldly logic considers it reasonable to love people who measure up to our standards but to keep our distance from those who don’t.

Or maybe we simply feel unworthy of his love. The truth is that no one is worthy. God’s love is based not on whether we’re deserving, but on his character. Love isn’t merely something God does; it’s who he is (v. 8). Divine love demonstrates God’s commitment to our greatest good. It’s like the ocean’s tide: You can stand on the shore and say, “I don’t believe in waves,” but that doesn’t stop the waves. Likewise, nothing you do or feel will stop the Father’s love from reaching you.

† Summary and Key Points of 1 John 4:7–11

In today’s five verses, John shows that genuine love begins with God, not with us. God is love, and he demonstrated that love by sending his one and only Son into the world as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Because God has loved us so greatly, we’re called to let his love shape the way we love one another.

•  Love originates in God (vv. 7–8). Love isn’t merely a human feeling or a moral ideal; it comes from God, whose very nature is love.

•  Love provides evidence of knowing God (vv. 7–8). “Those born of God and knowing him will show his love in their relationships with others; a life without love contradicts a claim to know him.

•  God took the initiative (v. 10). We didn’t love God first; he loved us and sent his Son for us. His love isn’t a response to our worthiness but an expression of his character.

•  God’s love is costly and redemptive (vv. 9–10). He sent his one and only Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins, providing life through him.

•  God’s love calls us to love one another (v. 11). Since God has loved us so greatly, we’re obligated to reflect that same self-giving love within the family of believers.

---