Commentary - 1 John 4:7-21

Bird's-eye view

In this magnificent passage, the apostle John brings his argument concerning the tests of true faith to a glorious crescendo. Having established the doctrinal test (confessing Jesus Christ has come in the flesh) and the moral test (obeying His commandments), he now expounds upon the social test: love for the brethren. John is not writing a sentimental greeting card; he is laying down a series of profound theological realities and their inescapable ethical consequences. He defines love not by our fickle emotions but by the objective, historical, and sacrificial action of God in sending His Son. This divine love is the source, standard, and stimulus for all genuine Christian love. The presence of this love is the evidence of regeneration, the means by which the invisible God is made visible, and the foundation for our confidence on the Day of Judgment. Conversely, its absence is the sure sign of a fraudulent faith, no matter how orthodox the profession.

John's logic is relentless. If God is love, and if we are born of God, then we will love. If God's love was demonstrated by Him sending His Son as a propitiation for our sins, then our love must be patterned after that same self-giving sacrifice. The entire passage functions as a spiritual diagnostic, forcing us to examine the fruit of our lives. Do we love the brethren? If we do, it is evidence that God abides in us. If we do not, our claim to know God is a lie. The invisible reality of our relationship with God is proven by the visible reality of our relationship with His people.

Outline

Context In 1 John

This passage is the heart of John's argument against the early Gnostic false teachers who were troubling the church. These heretics claimed to possess a special, "secret knowledge" of God, but their doctrine was flawed (denying the incarnation) and their lives were immoral and unloving. John counters this by providing three interlocking tests of genuine Christian life: the doctrinal test (1 John 4:1-6), the moral test (obedience, e.g., 1 John 2:3-6), and the social test (love for fellow believers). Chapter 4, verses 7-21, is the most extensive treatment of this third test. It directly confronts the Gnostic separation of knowledge from ethics. For John, to "know" God is to be transformed by Him, and the primary evidence of that transformation is a supernatural, sacrificial love for the family of God. This section is not an isolated discourse on affection but a crucial piece of pastoral polemics, designed to give believers assurance and to expose imposters.

Key Issues

The Grammar of Divine Love

Our culture has defined the word "love" down into a puddle of sentiment, a vague feeling of warm approval, or worse, an appetite. But when the apostle John says that God is love, he is not defining God according to our emotional weather. Rather, he is defining love according to the fixed, immutable, and holy character of God. God's love is not a mere attribute He possesses, like a man might possess a hat; it is the very essence of His nature and the motivation for His actions. This passage is John's grammar book for this divine love. He shows us its origin (from God), its definition (the cross), its object (the unworthy), and its necessary result (our love for one another). To understand this passage is to understand that Christian love is not something we work up, but something that is worked in us as a direct consequence of being born of God.

Verse by Verse Commentary

7-8 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

John begins with a tender appeal, "Beloved," which itself models the love he commands. The command is straightforward: "let us love one another." But the basis for this command is not a suggestion for social improvement. It is rooted in two profound theological facts. First, the origin of all true love is God Himself. Second, the presence of this love is the non-negotiable evidence of regeneration. "Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God." This is a diagnostic statement. John then states the principle in the negative, which makes the test even sharper. If you do not love, you do not know God. The reason is ultimate and foundational: "because God is love." This does not mean that love is God, which would be idolatry. It means that the very being of God is characterized by self-giving love, and to be born of Him is to partake of that same nature.

9-10 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 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.

How do we know what this divine love looks like? John points us to a historical event. God's love was not an abstract concept; it was manifested, made visible and concrete, when "God has sent His only begotten Son into the world." The purpose of this mission was to give us life. But verse 10 clarifies the nature of this love with laser precision. It is an initiating love: "not that we have loved God, but that He loved us." We were not lovable; we were dead in our sins, hostile to God. His love is not a response to our value, but the creator of it. And what did this love accomplish? He sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. This is a crucial, non-sentimental, bedrock word. A propitiation is a sacrifice that turns away wrath. God's love does not ignore His perfect justice and holy hatred of sin. Rather, in an act of infinite love, God satisfies His own justice by taking the punishment upon Himself in the person of His Son. This is the definition of love.

11-12 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has beheld God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.

Here is the inescapable ethical conclusion. The "if" should be understood as "since." Since God loved us in this specific, costly, propitiatory way, the obligation is absolute: "we also ought to love one another." Our love is to be patterned on His. It is to be sacrificial, initiating, and directed toward the undeserving. Then John adds a startling thought. God is invisible. So how is He to be seen in the world? John's answer is that the local church is to be the theater of God's glory. When we love one another, the invisible God "abides in us," and His love is "perfected" or brought to its intended goal in our corporate life. The world is meant to look at the church and see a tangible demonstration of the character of the God they cannot see.

13-14 By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. We have beheld and bear witness that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

John provides a two-fold basis for our assurance. How can we be sure of this incredible reality that we abide in God? First, there is the internal witness of the Holy Spirit. God has given us His Spirit, and the fruit of the Spirit is, preeminently, love. Second, there is the external, objective, apostolic testimony. "We have beheld and bear witness." Our faith is not based on a subjective feeling alone; it is grounded in the historical fact of the incarnation and the apostolic proclamation of Jesus as the Savior of the world. The subjective experience of the Spirit confirms the objective truth of the gospel.

15-16 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have come to know and have believed the love which God has in us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

The doctrinal test and the social test are woven together. The foundation is the great confession that Jesus is the Son of God. This is not just reciting a creed, but a whole-hearted trust in and submission to Christ. The result of this confession is mutual abiding. This leads to a settled assurance: "we have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us." It is a knowledge born of faith. John then repeats his central axiom, "God is love," and draws the conclusion. To abide in love is to abide in God. You cannot have one without the other. Life in God is a life of love.

17-18 By this, love has been perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.

What is the ultimate goal of this perfected love? It is "confidence in the day of judgment." The Christian is not meant to live in cowering terror of the final judgment. We are to have boldness. On what basis? "because as He is, so also are we in this world." Through our union with Christ, we already share in His righteous and accepted status before the Father. This reality, when grasped and lived out, expels fear. "Perfect love casts out fear." The fear in view here is the tormenting dread of condemnation, for it "involves punishment." If we are still dominated by this kind of fear, it is a sign that we have not yet fully grasped or matured in the love God has for us, a love that absorbed all the punishment on the cross.

19 We love, because He first loved us.

This is one of the most concise and profound summaries of the gospel in all of Scripture. It is the foundation of everything John has said. Our love is never the cause of God's love for us. Our love is always and only the result of His love for us. He is the initiator. He is the source. All our spiritual life, all our obedience, all our affection for God and for our brothers, is a responsive echo to the great shout of His love demonstrated at Calvary. There is no room for human boasting.

20-21 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.

John concludes with a final, unanswerable piece of logic that exposes all hypocritical religiosity. He sets up a scenario: a man who professes love for God but hates his brother. John's verdict is blunt: "he is a liar." The reasoning is an argument from the lesser to the greater. Your brother is a visible image-bearer of the invisible God. If you cannot manage to love the concrete, visible man or woman you see every day, your claim to love the abstract, invisible God is fraudulent. It is impossible. You are failing the kindergarten test and claiming to have a doctorate. The two loves are not separable. Therefore, the commandment from God is twofold but unified: love God, and love your brother. They are two sides of the same coin.

Application

This passage forces us to move our understanding of love from the realm of Hallmark cards to the foot of the bloody cross. True love is not a warm feeling; it is a rugged, covenantal commitment that acts for the good of another, regardless of the cost. It is defined by propitiation, by God's holy love satisfying His own holy wrath. This is the love that saved us, and this is the love that must characterize us.

The application is therefore intensely practical. We must examine our relationships within the church. Is there anyone we hate? Is there bitterness, envy, or gossip that we are tolerating in our hearts? If so, John's diagnosis is that we are liars. Our profession of love for God is a sham. The solution is not to try harder to dredge up warm feelings. The solution is to go back to the source. "We love, because He first loved us." We must meditate on the love of God for us in Christ, a love that embraced us when we were His enemies, a love that paid the ultimate price to reconcile us. It is only when we are overwhelmed by His love for us that we will be freed and empowered to truly love one another. The love we show to our brother is the overflow of the love we have received from our God.