LOVE ONE ANOTHER
1 JOHN 4:7-21
Jn. 13:34-35 [NIV]. A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
35. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
Jn. 15:12 [ESV]. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
I. Fountain of love (4:7-8)
A. Emanate (7)
Rom. 5:5 [NIV]. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
B. Essence (8; God is love–1 Jn. 4:16)
1. Born of God (Jn. 1:13, 3:3-5-6-7-8; 1 Jn. 2:29, 3:9, 4:7, 5:1-4-18)
1 Jn. 5:1 [CEV]. If we believe that Jesus is truly Christ, we are God's children. Everyone who loves the Father will also love his children.
2. Knowledge of God (Jn. 17:3)
1 Jn. 3:14 [MSG]. The way we know we've been transferred from death to life is that we love our brothers and sisters. Anyone who doesn't love is as good as dead.
II. Fact of love (4:9-10, 14; manifested–1 Jn. 1:2)
Jn. 3:16-17 [NIV]. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
17. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Rom. 5:8 [HCSB]. But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us!
A. God sent the Son for regeneration (9)
Jn. 10:10 [NIV]. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
B. God sent the Son for propitiation (10)
Rom. 3:25 [HCSB]. God presented Him as a propitiation through faith in His blood, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His restraint God passed over the sins previously committed.
C. God sent the Son for salvation (14)
Lk. 2:11. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
III. Fruit of love (4:11-13, 15)
A. God abides if you love one another (11-12)
1. Initiation (God so loved–Jn. 3:16)
2. Implication (ought–Eph. 5:28)
3. Illustration (seen–Jn. 1:14)
a. Proof (1 Jn. 3:17)
b. Perfection (Jn. 4:34, 17:4; Heb. 2:10; 1 Jn. 4:17-18)
B. God abides if you receive the Spirit (13; 1 Jn. 3:24)
Eph. 1:13 [NIV]. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,
C. God abides if you confess the Son (15; 1 Jn. 4:2)
Rom. 10:9-10 [HCSB]. If you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
10. With the heart one believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses, resulting in salvation.
IV. Fear of love (4:16-19)
A. Convinced of love (16; know and believe–Jn. 6:69, 17:8)
Jn. 3:16 [WNT]. For so greatly did God love the world that He gave His only Son, that every one who trusts in Him may not perish but may have the Life of Ages.
The love of God is the greatest theme of the Bible. To know and believe the love of God is the greatest discovery in life.
Augustine said, “He loves each one of us, as if there were only one of us.”
Jesse Hendley said, “God is not interested first in your service. He is interested in your heart. God loves you.”
B. Confident with love (17; 1 Jn. 2:28, 3:21, 4:17, 5:14)
Phil. 1:20 [DRB]. According to my expectation and hope; that in nothing I shall be confounded: but with all confidence, as always, so now also, shall Christ be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death.
1. At judgment (1 Cor. 4:5)
2. As Jesus (Jn. 17:24-26)
a. Identification
b. Representation
Believers visibly represent Jesus.
C. Complete in love (18)
Mt. 5:48 [NIV]. Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
1 Cor. 13:10 [WNT]. But when the perfect state of things is come, all that is imperfect will be brought to an end.
1. Afraid (Heb. 2:15; fear not–2 Kg. 6:16; 1 Chr. 28:20; 2 Chr. 32:7; Ps. 3:6, 56:11, 91:5; Is. 41:10; Jn. 14:27)
Rom. 8:15 [CEV] God's Spirit doesn't make us slaves who are afraid of him. Instead, we become his children and call him our Father.
Robertson said that perfect love “drives fear out so that it does not exist in real love. Perfect love harbors no suspicion and no dread.”
John Newton once stated, “I know that my father loved me–but he did not seem to wish me to see it.”
2. Anxious (punishment–Mt. 25:46)
Richard C. Halverson said, “There is nothing you can to do make God love you more! There is nothing you can do to make God love you less! His love is Unconditional, Impartial, Everlasting, Infinite, Perfect!”
D. Chosen to love (19; Mt. 20:16)
Robertson said, “Our love is in response to his love for us.” Vincent said, “All human love is preceded and generated by the love of God.”
John experienced the love of Christ. John so believed Christ’s love that he boldly called himself the “disciple whom Jesus loved” (Jn. 13:23, 19:26, 20:2, 21:7-20).
William R. Newell said, “To believe, and to consent to be loved while unworthy, is the great secret.”
Near the end of an 82-year-old life, the Swiss-German theologian Karl Barth (1886-1968), father of neo-orthodoxy, delivered one of his last lectures at the University of Chicago Divinity School. At the end of Barth’s lecture one asked him, “Of all the theological insights you have ever had, which do you consider to be the greatest of them all?” Karl Barth replied, “The greatest theological insight that I have ever had is this: Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”
V. Fallacy of love (4:20-21)
A. Contradiction (20; if say–1 Jn. 1:6, 2:4)
1 Pet. 1:22 [NIV]. Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.
1. Hatred (Mt. 5:44; 1 Jn. 2:9-11, 3:15, 4:20)
2. Hypocrisy (liar–Jn. 8:44; 1 Jn. 1:10, 2:4-22, 4:20, 5:10)
a. See (Jn. 1:18; 1 Pet. 1:8; 1 Jn. 3:6)
b. Show
1 Cor. 13:1 [MSG]. If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.
B. Commandment (21; 1 Jn. 3:23)
Mk. 12:30-31 [NIV]. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
31. The second is this: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” There is no commandment greater than these.
Rom. 13:8 [GNB]. Be under obligation to no one---the only obligation you have is to love one another. Whoever does this has obeyed the Law.
Mother Theresa in Calcutta, India, said, “We want them to know that there are people who really love them, who really want them, at least for the hours that they have to live; to know human and divine love.”