The Grammar of God Is Love Text: 1 John 4:7-21
Introduction: The World's Counterfeit
There is perhaps no phrase in Scripture more beloved by the world, and more catastrophically misunderstood, than "God is love." Our generation has taken these three words and turned them into a sentimental, all-purpose justification for every imaginable sin. For the world, "God is love" means that God is infinitely tolerant, endlessly affirming, and certainly not the sort of being who would ever judge anyone for anything. This "love" is a vague, syrupy feeling that makes no demands and has no backbone. It is a cosmic permission slip. But the Apostle John is not peddling in such cheap sentimentality. When John says "God is love," he is not giving us a pillow; he is giving us a definition carved in granite.
John is writing to a church vexed by false teachers, proto-Gnostics who claimed a secret, spiritual knowledge of God that was disconnected from moral behavior and disconnected from love for the brethren. They had a "spirituality" that floated free from the inconvenient demands of daily life. John's response is to bring them crashing back to earth. He tells them that the test of true spirituality, the evidence of knowing God, is not some esoteric experience but is rather something as tangible and gritty as loving your brother. And the foundation for this command, the source from which it flows, is the very nature of God Himself. What John gives us here is not a slogan, but the very grammar of our salvation and the logic of our life together as believers.
We must understand that this passage is a tightly woven argument. It defines love, it shows us where love comes from, it tells us how love was demonstrated, and it lays out the unavoidable implications for us. If we get this wrong, we get Christianity wrong. If we substitute the world's definition of love for God's, we are not just mistaken; we are practicing a different religion entirely.
The Text
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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. We love, because He first loved us. 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.
(1 John 4:7-21 LSB)
The Source and Definition of Love (vv. 7-10)
John begins by rooting our love for one another in the very nature of God.
"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." (1 John 4:7-8)
The first thing to notice is that love is not a human product. It is "from God." It originates in Him. Therefore, if you see genuine, biblical love in action, you are seeing evidence of the new birth. This is a diagnostic test. A loveless Christian is a contradiction in terms, like a square circle or a married bachelor. The one who does not love simply "does not know God." It is not that he is a subpar Christian; it is that he is not a Christian at all. The absence of love is not a sign of immaturity; it is a sign of being unregenerate.
The reason for this is profound: "because God is love." This is an ontological statement. It is a statement about God's very being. And we must get the grammar right. It does not say "love is God." That is idolatry, making an abstract concept or a human emotion into a god. John says God is love. This is only possible because God is a Trinity. Before the foundation of the world, God was love because the Father eternally loved the Son in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. A unitarian god, a monad, could not be eternally love. He would need to create something to love in order to express love. But our God, the Triune God, is a loving community within Himself. Love is not one of His activities; it is His essence.
So how was this essential love manifested? How was it defined for us? John is crystal clear.
"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." (1 John 4:9-10)
God's love is not a Hallmark card sentiment. It is a rugged, historical, bloody fact. It was manifested in a specific action: the sending of the Son. And the definition of this love is crucial. "Not that we have loved God, but that He loved us." God's love is always the initiating love. We were not lovable. We were dead in our sins, hostile to God. He did not look down through the corridors of time and see something in us worth loving. He loved us in order to make us lovable.
And the purpose of sending the Son was to be the "propitiation for our sins." This is a word our modern, sentimental age despises. Propitiation means a wrath-averting sacrifice. It means that our sin had incurred the just and holy wrath of God. God's love did not simply ignore His wrath or pretend our sin did not matter. God's love satisfied His own wrath by taking it upon Himself in the person of His Son on the cross. Any definition of love that removes propitiation is a lie. It is a different gospel. God's love is a holy love, a just love, a sacrificial love that deals with the terrible reality of sin.
The Obligation and Evidence of Love (vv. 11-16)
Because God's love is defined this way, it carries with it an inescapable obligation.
"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." (1 John 4:11-12)
The logic is airtight. "If God so loved us" in this sacrificial, initiating, propitiatory way, then it follows that "we also ought to love one another." This is not a gentle suggestion. It is a covenantal debt. We who have received such a love are now obligated to give it. And this visible love for one another solves a problem: "No one has beheld God at any time." God is invisible Spirit. So how does the world see God? John says they see Him when they see us loving one another. Our mutual love is the tangible evidence of the invisible God abiding in our midst. When we love each other, His love is "perfected" in us, meaning it is brought to its intended goal and completion.
John then explains the grounds of our assurance in this relationship.
"By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit... Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God... God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him." (1 John 4:13, 15-16)
Our assurance has a three-fold cord. We know we abide in Him because of the internal witness of the Spirit. We know it by our external confession that Jesus is the Son of God. And we know it by the practical outworking of love in our lives. To abide in love is to abide in God. These things are not separate compartments; they are all part of the same reality. The Spirit enables the confession, and the confession is authenticated by a life of love.
The Confidence of Love (vv. 17-19)
This reality of abiding in God's love produces a remarkable fruit: confidence in the face of judgment.
"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." (1 John 4:17-18)
The goal of perfected love is that we can stand before the throne of God on the last day with boldness, not cowering in terror. What is the basis for such an audacious confidence? It is this staggering statement: "because as He is, so also are we in this world." As Christ is, righteous, accepted, and beloved by the Father, so are we, right now, in this world. We are united to Him. We are clothed in His righteousness. We are not waiting to become acceptable; in Him, we already are.
This is why "perfect love casts out fear." The fear John speaks of is the slavish terror of a criminal before a judge. It is the fear of punishment. But because Christ has been our propitiation, the punishment has already been served. The wrath has been exhausted. Therefore, for the believer, there is no condemnation left. To live in fear of God's punishment is to misunderstand the gospel. It is to show that God's love has not yet been perfected in you. It has not yet completed its work of giving you settled assurance.
And lest we get puffed up, John reminds us of the ultimate source of our love.
"We love, because He first loved us." (1 John 4:19)
Our love is never the cause; it is always the effect. We are not the initiators; we are the responders. Every act of love we perform, every motion of our heart toward God or toward our brother, is simply the echo of His first love for us. We are mirrors reflecting the light that originates from Him.
The Acid Test of Love (vv. 20-21)
Finally, John lays down the non-negotiable, practical test. He brings it all down to the church aisle, the dinner table, and the business dealing.
"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." (1 John 4:20-21)
John does not mince words. The man who claims to love God while hating his brother is a liar. It is not that he is a weak Christian; he is a fraud. The logic is simple and devastating. Your brother is visible, made in the image of God, standing right in front of you. God is invisible. If you cannot manage to love the visible representation of God, how can you possibly claim to love the invisible God? It is an absurdity. It is like saying you are a master chef but you cannot boil water.
Your treatment of your brother is the acid test of your love for God. The two commandments are not two separate items on a checklist; they are two sides of the same coin. They are organically and inseparably linked. To love God is to love what He loves, and He loves the saints. To hate your brother is to hate one whom God loves, and that is to set yourself against God.
This is the great challenge for us. Our love is not to be an abstract feeling directed at an invisible God. It must take on flesh and blood. It must be a love that forgives, a love that serves, a love that bears with, a love that speaks truth, a love that is patient. This is the love that proves we have been born of God. This is the love that makes the invisible God visible to a watching world. This is the love that flows from the very heart of our Triune God, who is, and was, and always will be, love.