I've been studying 1 John 4:7 - 21 lately and it really opened my eyes. I guess it does every time I study it. It makes me see where I need to improve and how desperately sick the church itself is these days. Very few Christians can say that they live up to the command that Jesus gave us to love one another. I'm bringing this up here because it illustrates what was lacking in Job's friends. There was no love there for him, and that's what he needed most of all. It's what we all need most of all.
And our Lord provided it for us by placing us in the body of Christ which is supposed to be a family for us. A family ruled by God's definition of love, not the worlds. Yet I can't name a single church or group that lives like that. I certainly hope that somewhere in this world there's a group like that, but I certainly haven't seen one. I know from history though that the body of Christ used to be more like this then it is now.
Besides loving fellow Christians though, the Lord told us to also love even non Christians this way! We fail terribly at loving each other and worse at loving non Christians... at least I know I do. No wonder no one can tell who's a Christian in this world....because most of us look, live and love, just like the world.
John 13:35 —By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” *
1 Peter 4:8 —Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. *
To give you an idea of what it could be like, let me share a story from one of my commentaries ...but first let me post the verses and an explanation of them:
1 John 4:7–21 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Dimensions of Love: 1 John 4:7–21
In these next verses John helps us see the way of love in the Christian community. He wanted us to experience close fellowship with Jesus and the Father, and live in intimate community with fellow-believers. John was not exhorting us to pump up the emotion we call “love.” He was explaining why love is valuable to the church, and how we can choose to live love.
In these verses there is no threat to make us feel guilty if we have fallen short of love. John did not lay a burden of obligation to make us struggle harder to do something we cannot do. Instead he simply pointed out that God is love, and to live in fellowship with Him is to live in love. If in our association with other Christians we fall into the world’s way of antagonism and selfishness, then we are not experiencing God’s presence.
These words of John bring hope. If we have failed to love, we acknowledge our sin to God and experience His forgiveness and cleansing. Only if we deny the importance of love in our relationships within the church, and let barriers arise between people have we lost our way. What do believers need to understand about love in order to experience fellowship with God? Let’s trace the thought of the passage.
Love is central (1 John 4:7–8). Because God is love, the person who shares God’s love will love. This is simply a fact; a reflection of the reality that where there is no will to love, God is absent.
Love initiates (1 John 4:9–12). John made abstract love personal when he explained that God loved us and “sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (v. 10). God’s action is especially striking since we did not love God when He gave Himself. Loving meant initiating action without immediate return (and, in the case of many whom God loves, without any return). Here is a model for love in the Christian community. Since God loved us in this same way, we ought to love one another in the same manner.
Relationships in society are usually governed by reciprocity. I am nice to those who are nice to me. Jim invites me to lunch; I invite him in return. I borrow tools from Stan; he borrows tools from me. Even sinners, Jesus once commented, love those who love them (Matt. 5:46). But love in the Christian community is not to depend on repayment. We are to take the initiative in loving, even when the ones we reach out to do not respond.
At first this seems like a strange instruction. Won’t such lovers be taken advantage of? Won’t the unresponsive drain the people who do care? John’s answer is twofold. First, the capacity to love in this way exists in every person who is born of God. Thus, it is not a few loving the rest, but it is all of us loving one another! Each of us has the opportunity to reach out and initiate actions that meet the deepest needs of our brothers and sisters.
Second, as we take up the joyful burden of loving others, God, who no one has seen, becomes strangely visible in the church. We see God Himself as He “lives in us and His love is made complete in us” (v. 12). As God becomes more real among us, even those who have not responded will be touched by His love.
God does live in us (1 John 4:13–16). Is such love possible? Of course! We don’t rely on any capacity of our own to love our brothers. In the person of the Holy Spirit God lives in us and will love through us. We learn to share God’s love for us.
Love frees us from fear (1 John 4:17–18). John has an exciting prospect for the fearful and doubting. As we see God’s love taking visible shape in the community of faith, we become more confident and more like God. “In this world,” John said of the believing community, “we are like Him” (v. 17). Love transforms us. We realize that God is not angry or eager to punish; love has driven out fear.
And now, for the story:
The way love drives out fear is beautiful. When Stan became a Christian, he was antagonistic, bitter, and quick to take offense at others whom he thought slighted him. Burdened by a poor self-image, Stan could not believe that God accepted him with all of his faults. Every time something went wrong, Stan was sure God was punishing him and he cringed. Even when everything seemed to go smoothly, there was always an aching fear that kept Stan from feeling peace or satisfaction.
Then Stan became a member of a truly loving church whose members accepted him as he was. They understood his behavior, overlooked his insults, and returned only love. They invited this unpleasant young man into their homes.
Gradually Stan began to realize that these people loved him in spite of himself. He could be real with them, and they still cared. For a time Stan became worse, testing their acceptance to see if it were real. Finally he was convinced. He was loved! With this discovery came a great release. Through the love of his brothers and sisters in Christ, Stan experienced the reality of God’s love. The message of Calvary he had accepted intellectually now released the knots of guilt and fear deep within. When Stan found a community of people who were like God in this world, he was freed to grow into a loving person himself.
Love is our proper response to God (1 John 4:19–21). Stan was freed to love only by being loved. John pointed out that it is the same with all of us. We did not love God; God loved us. God reached out first. But in being loved by God, we are freed to love in return. Then we can reach out to others.
Who do we love when God’s love frees us? Yes, we do love God. But we also love our brothers. In fact, love of God and love of His family are so inseparably linked that John flatly stated, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar” (v. 20). Love wears no blinders that cut off some while focusing on others. When love touches us, our whole personality is affected. We see God and sensing His love, are drawn to Him. We see people for the first time. We reach out to touch and to care. Love has transformed us.
And our Lord provided it for us by placing us in the body of Christ which is supposed to be a family for us. A family ruled by God's definition of love, not the worlds. Yet I can't name a single church or group that lives like that. I certainly hope that somewhere in this world there's a group like that, but I certainly haven't seen one. I know from history though that the body of Christ used to be more like this then it is now.
Besides loving fellow Christians though, the Lord told us to also love even non Christians this way! We fail terribly at loving each other and worse at loving non Christians... at least I know I do. No wonder no one can tell who's a Christian in this world....because most of us look, live and love, just like the world.
John 13:35 —By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” *
1 Peter 4:8 —Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. *
To give you an idea of what it could be like, let me share a story from one of my commentaries ...but first let me post the verses and an explanation of them:
1 John 4:7–21 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Dimensions of Love: 1 John 4:7–21
In these next verses John helps us see the way of love in the Christian community. He wanted us to experience close fellowship with Jesus and the Father, and live in intimate community with fellow-believers. John was not exhorting us to pump up the emotion we call “love.” He was explaining why love is valuable to the church, and how we can choose to live love.
In these verses there is no threat to make us feel guilty if we have fallen short of love. John did not lay a burden of obligation to make us struggle harder to do something we cannot do. Instead he simply pointed out that God is love, and to live in fellowship with Him is to live in love. If in our association with other Christians we fall into the world’s way of antagonism and selfishness, then we are not experiencing God’s presence.
These words of John bring hope. If we have failed to love, we acknowledge our sin to God and experience His forgiveness and cleansing. Only if we deny the importance of love in our relationships within the church, and let barriers arise between people have we lost our way. What do believers need to understand about love in order to experience fellowship with God? Let’s trace the thought of the passage.
Love is central (1 John 4:7–8). Because God is love, the person who shares God’s love will love. This is simply a fact; a reflection of the reality that where there is no will to love, God is absent.
Love initiates (1 John 4:9–12). John made abstract love personal when he explained that God loved us and “sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (v. 10). God’s action is especially striking since we did not love God when He gave Himself. Loving meant initiating action without immediate return (and, in the case of many whom God loves, without any return). Here is a model for love in the Christian community. Since God loved us in this same way, we ought to love one another in the same manner.
Relationships in society are usually governed by reciprocity. I am nice to those who are nice to me. Jim invites me to lunch; I invite him in return. I borrow tools from Stan; he borrows tools from me. Even sinners, Jesus once commented, love those who love them (Matt. 5:46). But love in the Christian community is not to depend on repayment. We are to take the initiative in loving, even when the ones we reach out to do not respond.
At first this seems like a strange instruction. Won’t such lovers be taken advantage of? Won’t the unresponsive drain the people who do care? John’s answer is twofold. First, the capacity to love in this way exists in every person who is born of God. Thus, it is not a few loving the rest, but it is all of us loving one another! Each of us has the opportunity to reach out and initiate actions that meet the deepest needs of our brothers and sisters.
Second, as we take up the joyful burden of loving others, God, who no one has seen, becomes strangely visible in the church. We see God Himself as He “lives in us and His love is made complete in us” (v. 12). As God becomes more real among us, even those who have not responded will be touched by His love.
God does live in us (1 John 4:13–16). Is such love possible? Of course! We don’t rely on any capacity of our own to love our brothers. In the person of the Holy Spirit God lives in us and will love through us. We learn to share God’s love for us.
Love frees us from fear (1 John 4:17–18). John has an exciting prospect for the fearful and doubting. As we see God’s love taking visible shape in the community of faith, we become more confident and more like God. “In this world,” John said of the believing community, “we are like Him” (v. 17). Love transforms us. We realize that God is not angry or eager to punish; love has driven out fear.
And now, for the story:
The way love drives out fear is beautiful. When Stan became a Christian, he was antagonistic, bitter, and quick to take offense at others whom he thought slighted him. Burdened by a poor self-image, Stan could not believe that God accepted him with all of his faults. Every time something went wrong, Stan was sure God was punishing him and he cringed. Even when everything seemed to go smoothly, there was always an aching fear that kept Stan from feeling peace or satisfaction.
Then Stan became a member of a truly loving church whose members accepted him as he was. They understood his behavior, overlooked his insults, and returned only love. They invited this unpleasant young man into their homes.
Gradually Stan began to realize that these people loved him in spite of himself. He could be real with them, and they still cared. For a time Stan became worse, testing their acceptance to see if it were real. Finally he was convinced. He was loved! With this discovery came a great release. Through the love of his brothers and sisters in Christ, Stan experienced the reality of God’s love. The message of Calvary he had accepted intellectually now released the knots of guilt and fear deep within. When Stan found a community of people who were like God in this world, he was freed to grow into a loving person himself.
Love is our proper response to God (1 John 4:19–21). Stan was freed to love only by being loved. John pointed out that it is the same with all of us. We did not love God; God loved us. God reached out first. But in being loved by God, we are freed to love in return. Then we can reach out to others.
Who do we love when God’s love frees us? Yes, we do love God. But we also love our brothers. In fact, love of God and love of His family are so inseparably linked that John flatly stated, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar” (v. 20). Love wears no blinders that cut off some while focusing on others. When love touches us, our whole personality is affected. We see God and sensing His love, are drawn to Him. We see people for the first time. We reach out to touch and to care. Love has transformed us.
In Christ, and in His community of faith, we will learn to walk in love.
The teacher’s commentary
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