“God is love,” says the Apostle. With this we come to what Robert Law called, “the summit of all revelation,”[1] what John Stott called “the most comprehensive and sublime of all biblical affirmations about God’s being.”[2] God is love! This “sublime” revelation of God forms the basis for our greatest responsibility as His children, our responsibility to love. The association of God with love has become commonplace in the modern world. The man on the streets seems to think of God in these terms, and has become numb to its surprise. The ancients were not. It seems not to have occurred to the ancient religions to identify love with the nature of God. Neither is it an article of faith for the religions of the world today. Only in the gospel of Jesus Christ is the God who is love revealed to us, never more clearly than here through the Apostle John.

The exhortations and teaching of 4:7–5:12 continue to be built around the Fatherhood of God and our spiritual rebirth. But the focus shifts in 4:7 to the revelation that the God who is Father “is love.” One may see this section as the third great section of the letter. Successively, we have seen an aspect of God’s being or character revealed and commands based on that attribute given. John has taught us God is light, therefore live as light (1:5­–2:11); God is our Father, therefore live as children of God (3:1­–4:6); and now God is love (4:7–5:12).

Love, he tells us, because God is love. He urges us to do so (following Boice), 1) because God’s nature is love; 2) because of God’s gift of love; and 3) because we (believers) are the agents of God’s love in the world today.

God’s Nature

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. (1 Jn 4:7,8)

“Beloved,” the Apostle John says, “let us love one another.” This is the third time that the Apostle John has urged us to love one another (2:8-10; 3:11-18). The Apostle’s primary concern continues to be ethical as it has been throughout so much of this epistle. He anchors his case for mutual Christian love in its ultimate source. Where does love come from? “Love is from God,” says the Apostle. He is the source of all love. Love is “rooted in God.”[3] Consequently, everyone who is “born of God,” and “knows God” (continuing the theme of the divine Fatherhood found in 3:1–4:6) “loves.” Conversely, “the one who does not love” couldn’t possibly know this God. Why? Because “God is love.” He does not say that “God is loving.” It is not God’s behavior, but His essential nature which is in view. God “is love in His inmost being.”[4] Love is “of the essence of his being,” say the commentators. “God loves,” Morris continues, but not in an incidental or haphazard fashion. He loves because it is his nature to love, because it is his nature to give himself unceasingly in love.”[5] All love is from Him because He is the origin and source of love. He is the “fountain of love,” says Calvin.[6] His nature, His being, His character, His essence is love.

We need to elaborate and clarify. When the Bible says that “God is love” it doesn’t mean that God is love to the exclusion of His other attributes. The Bible also says that God is “light” (1 Jn 1:5), and that God is “consuming fire” (Heb 12:29). The same Greek construction is used in both of these cases. The God who is love is also truth and holiness and justice. God’s love is a just love, and His justice is a loving justice. We must not allow one attribute to overwhelm and nullify the rest. Justice is exercised lovingly, and love never compromises His justice. “We do wrong to exalt the love of God as His supreme feature just because it is more congenial to our thinking,” Marshall reminds us.[7] Far too often love in God has been affirmed in order to deny God’s moral qualities. “I believe in a God of love,” someone will say, as they go on to abolish judgment day and quench the fires of hell. Or they’ll affirm the Divine acceptance of any and every lifestyle choice. Or they’ll toss out moral categories altogether, in the name of love. “A loving God would never,” an assertion begins, and then follows a list of moral distinctions or moral demands that God, it is alleged, would never make. He never would condemn me, or want me to be unhappy, or disapprove of my conduct, and so on. This is to read into the Bible’s affirmation of God’s love content that it does not have. It is the Bible, and the Bible alone that teaches that God is love, and it doesn’t imply in doing so that this is all that God is. God remains holy. “Behold the goodness and severity of God,” says the Apostle Paul (Rom 11:22). “Far from condoning sin,” which the modern view of God’s love would have Him do, “His love has found a way,” says Stott, “to expose it (because He is light) and to consume it (because it is fire) without destroying the sinner, but rather saving him.”[8] Hamilton adds quite helpfully, “His love is not and cannot be blind and indulgent, just as His justice and holiness are not, and cannot be, cold and arbitrary.”[9]

What then does the Apostle mean? While we should not allow love to overshadow all other of God’s attributes, yet we can say that love, in a sense, is more “natural” to God than is His wrath. He prefers to express it over and against His more severe attributes. We are stretching language at this point because God’s attributes are a harmonious unity. Love and justice are not warring against each other in God’s consciousness. Yet the Bible teaches us that God “delights to show mercy,” never that He “delights to show wrath” (Mic 7:18). “God is more inclinable to mercy than wrath,” said the Puritan Thomas Watson. “Acts of severity are rather forced from Him.”[10] We are told that “he does not afflict willingly,” yet He does willing and eagerly love (Lam 3:33; Deut 6:6,7). He is “slow to anger” while He “abounds in lovingkindness” (Ps 103:8; cf. Ex 34:6). Isaiah calls God’s judgment His “strange work” (Is 28:21 KJV), or what the theologians called His opera aliena, His alien task. He is a reluctant judge. It is as though the expression of just wrath were foreign to Him. God is more inclined to love, to show kindness, grace, and mercy than He is to show anger, wrath, and judgment. The expression of love is more fundamental to who God is, perhaps we can say, more comprehensive, more revealing of His inclination or the direction of His nature, more a manifestation of His preference, than would be the expression of His judgment.

“God loves,” says Morris, “not because he finds objects worthy of his love, but because it is his nature to love.”[11] God is in Himself all that love is and does. He is good, kind, patient, generous, giving, sacrificial, serving. He is also the source of all these things. All love, including even pagan love, is ultimately a gift which He gives. All the good that we enjoy, the sunshine and the rainfall, the “fruitful seasons” that “satisfy (our) hearts with good and gladness,” are all gifts of His love (Mt 5:45; Acts 14:17).

We can be thankful that the Bible teaches us this. We’ve not been left wondering, as were the ancient peoples, whose gods were arbitrary and capricious. People have lived in terror of their gods for millennia. Enormous sacrifices, often of human life, were made in order to placate them. Dread of the next irrational, destructive whim of their gods filled their lives, but the Apostle John assures us that God is love! Love is of His essential nature. We can breathe a sigh of relief. When we trace the universe back to its origins we find infinite and personal love.

This however is not a “lesson about the love of God for its own sake,” as Kruse points out.[12] The Apostle’s point is ethical. “Let us love one another.” Love is to be our response to His love. “Every one who loves is born of God and knows God.” Love because you have been “born of God.” Since God’s nature is love, a true encounter with God through Christ involves the implanting of the divine nature into the soul. The one who is born of God takes on His attribute of love. It is in his or her ethical DNA. The birth of which the Apostle John speaks is a supernatural birth. It is to be “born again” or born from above, or “born of the Spirit” (Jn 3:2ff). Through this new birth God imparts His nature to His children. We become new creatures. The old hatreds and the old angers pass away. All things become new (2 Cor 5:17). We become like our parent. The opposite is also true. “The one who does not love does not know God.” Why? Because “God is love.”

Further, the one who “knows” God, that is, has an ongoing personal experience of God in Christ, is transformed by the experience. Putting our meaning in theological terms, not only is regeneration transforming, but so is our walk with God. Our knowledge of God is far more than information. It is transformation. “A person cannot come into a real relationship with a loving God without being transformed into a loving person,” as Marshall rightly affirms.[13] Morris strongly affirms the same thing in the negative: “To speak of knowing God without knowing love is clearly ridiculous.”[14] A genuine knowledge of God issues in love. Why? We can answer this at several levels. We are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, the fruit of whose presence is love (Gal 5:22). We also can say that God’s love is infectious. Beyond regeneration there is inspiration and influence. We know of this in human relations. Years ago we enjoyed the ministry of a Welsh preacher who sang with incredible gusto. Many of us found ourselves singing louder and with greater energy because of his enthusiasm. One could not be around him without being inspired by vigorous singing. It was infectious.

This parallels how it is with God. One cannot be around Him, “know” Him, without being infected, or better, influenced and inspired. One becomes as He is. One loves as He loves. The Bible leaves no room for a “religion,” or experience of God that does not result in love. If we know the God who is there, the God who is love, that knowledge will make a loving person of us. If we have been just “religious,” and not truly experienced a personal knowledge of God through Jesus Christ, then it is possible to remain unloving. That would explain it. But a true knowledge of the God who is love will transform the character and nature of a person, so that he or she begins to love in the image of the One who is love. “There can be no real knowledge of God which is not expressed in love for fellow believers.”[15] Those who know Him wish to be like Him.

God’s Gift

One might ask, how do we know that God is love? Where is the evidence of it? The Apostle’s argument is really just an assertion. Upon what does he base his assertion? After all, as we’ve just indicated, it never occurred to most of the world to describe God as such. The world is full of pain, suffering, and evil. Where is His love? Ironically, what we’ve described as commonplace for the “man on the streets” to affirm about God and love is just as likely to be denied in times of trouble. His cheery outlook on the love of God may turn to anger and unbelief when tragedy strikes. “How could a God of love allow such a thing to take place?” he may ask bitterly.

The Apostle John’s answer is the incarnation and the cross.

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. (1 Jn 4:9)

The Apostle might have directed us to the beauty of creation to see the evidence of God’s love. There is so much to enjoy, so much to admire. But this is not the proof that the Apostle John seeks. It was “by this,” by the sending of His “only begotten,” or “one and only” (NIV), His unique Son, that the love of God was “manifested,” a word which means to make known, or to make clear.[16] God’s love was not manifested in a corner. “The showing of God’s love was a public affair . . .,” as Kruse points out.[17] That God “has sent,” implies Christ’s preexistence (see Jn 16:28). The sending of His only begotten Son into the world on our behalf is unmistakable evidence, even proof, of the love of God. “While the origin of love is in the being of God,” says Stott, “the manifestation of love is in the coming of Christ.”[18] This is what we celebrate each Christmas. The incarnation is a demonstration of the love of God. That God the Son should unite Himself to human nature and become a man is a profound act of condescension which demonstrates His love. Emphasis is upon the love of the Father. He sent His “one and only Son,” consequently, One especially valued and especially dear to His heart. Great sacrifice was involved in the incarnation as the eternal Son relinquished His equality with God to take the form of a bondservant (Phil 2:5ff).

But His love goes further than this.

In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 Jn 4:10)

“In this is love.” Here is our demonstration of love and our definition of love. It was “not that we loved God.” We didn’t. All the initiative was with God. “He loved us.” How? He “sent His Son.” Why? To be the “propitiation” (hilasmos) that is, the “atoning sacrifice” (NIV) that removes the guilt of sin and averts the wrath of God due our guilt.[19] The Apostle is helping us to understand the magnitude of the love of God. God did not just send His son. He sent His only Son. He didn’t just send His only Son, but He sent Him to die. It wasn’t even just to die that He was sent, but to die a death that involved Him in satisfying the infinite, just wrath of God against sin.[20] Calvin calls the cross the “chief example” of the love of God.[21] I remember as a young father pondering what it meant to sacrifice one’s only son for another. It is to give up that which is most precious, that which is most valued, that which is most dear and costly. This is what God did. This is how we are to understand the cross. He subjected His one and only Son for our sake, with all the cost that such a sacrifice entails. This is the measure of His love. And He did so even for sinners, for the helpless, for His “enemies” (Rom 5:10).

The cross is proof that God is love and, as we have been saying, that He is more than love. Why did God not just wave His magic wand and forgive everybody? Because of His justice. Because He is light. Love is shown in the costliness of the cross, but costliness is a result of the justice of God which He refused to compromise. There is a just penalty for all sin and even one sin. “The wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23). The cross is proof of God’s unyielding determination to see justice done. Lacking proof of the wrath of God against sin? Look at the cross. Looking for the ultimate argument against the false conception of God’s love that reduces it to an amorphous indifference to sin? Look at the cross. There God is both “just and justifier.” He demonstrates both His righteousness and His love (Rom 3:25,26; 5:8-10).

Yet, the Apostle John’s main point is the cross is proof that God is love. How? Because God Himself pays the costly price required by His justice. And He did so out of His own determination to do that which arises out of His own nature, which is love.

It was “not that we loved God.” “We will never find out what this love is if we start from the human end,” Marshall insists.[22] “We” is emphatic. He did not respond to our prior love. He did not foresee our love. Our love had nothing to do with it. It was not what “we” did. That is to say, God’s love is an initiating love. “John emphasizes,” not merely affirms, but “emphasizes,” says Smalley, “the biblical truth that the divine initiative is central to the plan of salvation.”[23] He took the first step with us. He sent His Son to die while we were still rebels. This is the scale of God’s love. There was nothing in us that drew His love, or attracted us to Him. As Stott says, God’s love is “free, uncaused and spontaneous, and all our love is but a reflection of His and a response to it.”[24] The God who is love demonstrated His love at the cross in allowing His only Son to be set upon by hateful men, “that we might live through Him.” How could we doubt the love of such a God? He has shown us, has He not? Has He not made it plain? Yes, life is tough. Yes, life is filled with pain and sorrow. Yes, it is a “veil of tears.” Does this mean that God is unloving? This is what many conclude. They say (as we’ve seen), “If God were loving, He would never have allowed thus and so.” Granted, the ways of the Almighty are mysterious, but the question of His love is not. His love has been demonstrated in an unmistakable way. At the cross we see a God of love, the God who is love.

Agents of God’s love

Here is the ethical point to which the Apostle’s discussion is driving.

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (1 Jn 4:11)

His point is that God’s love provides the model, the influence, the inspiration, and the power for how we are to love. God loved us with initiating, costly, sacrificing love. We are to love in the same manner. We are to “follow in His steps” (1 Pet 2:21). We are to “have this attitude . . . which was also in Christ Jesus,” the attitude of considering others as more important than ourselves, and looking out not merely for our own interests but the interests of others also (Phil 2:3ff). Of course we can’t love like this on our own. Even as God took the initiative with the undeserving, so should we. How may conflicts in our families remain unresolved because no one will take the first step towards resolution? Pride gets in the way. We won’t budge. “They’ll have to come to me,” we say. What if God had loved us this way? What would have happened? Nothing would have happened, nothing at all to disturb our plunge into perdition. God took the initiative, and so are we to take the initiative.

Many, many questions of duty are answered by a focusing of our sights upon the cross. What are we to do with a rebellious teenager? We are to love them with a love that costs us. What are we to do with a hateful, cruel, hurtful neighbor, church member, fellow worker? We are to remind ourselves of the cross and love them with sacrificial love. What is love? Amidst the myriad of voices claiming to define love, God plants a cross. Love is sacrifice. Love is taking the first step. Love is selflessness with people who are unworthy. New Testament love “involves a consuming passion for the well-being of others, and this love has its wellspring in God,” says Bruce.[25]

“That person who wronged me,” we say, “doesn’t deserve my love.” Yes, but neither did we. God did not love us because He found us appealing and worthy. He did not say, “My, so and so’s sure are wonderful people. They are so kind and obedient and loving that I think I’ll save them. They deserve it.” The idea is preposterous. Christ died for the unworthy, the helpless, and hopeless (Rom 5:8ff). “While we were yet sinners!” “While we were enemies!” Have we been on the receiving end of such love? Has the love of Christ been “shed abroad in our hearts” (Rom 5:5)? Then we can do no less than love in the same way. We are to see in those that we find so difficult to love the image of ourselves as Christ set His love upon us.

Why is the Apostle concerned that we should love one another in this way? Because through Christian love the world sees the love of God today. The Apostle says,

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 Jn 4:12)

No one has “beheld” or “seen” God. So how are we to know that He loves us? When “we love one another,” God is present, He “abides in us,” and His love is “perfected” or “completed.” Stott explains,

the unseen God, who was once revealed in His Son, is now revealed in His people if and when they love one another . . . God’s love which originates in Himself (7,8) and was manifested in His Son (9,10) is perfected in His people (12).[26]

As Christians love each other, the world sees the love of God. Indeed, “the love of God displayed in His people is the strongest apologetic that God has in the world,” says Bruce.[27] This is why we cannot refuse to love our fellow Christian. We cannot resolve to ignore, or shun, or be unkind to a fellow believer, especially a fellow church member, without damaging the message of the gospel. To do so is to obscure the love of God which is manifested in the cross and completed in our fellowship with one another. Jesus said,

By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another. (Jn 13:35)

Contemplate this when considering how to respond to other Christians. If an unbeliever were watching us interact, would he see the love of God? Or would he see the selfish, demanding, self-centered, vindictive, and manipulative behavior of the world? Would he see the image of God’s love, sacrifice, care, and compassion, or the twisted image of worldly selfishness, self-promotion, and pride? This is what it comes down to. What does the world see in us? When worldlings look at this church, do they see the love of God manifested in the love we have for one another? There are churches that are known publicly for their turmoil and conflict. I have read of churches where actual fist-fights have broken out at church meetings. The absence of love in the church undermines the credibility of our gospel. When we indulge in loveless behavior, when we indulge in the pursuit of petty personal concerns at the expense of others, we suffocate our message.

People do not see God. “No one has beheld God.” He is invisible. He has chosen to keep Himself that way. His chosen means of becoming visible and tangible to the world today is through abiding in Christians and “perfecting” His love through them.

See a need? Then meet it. Aware of a wound? Help to heal it. Take the initiative. Keep the cross in the center of our thinking. Let it inspire our actions. The consequences are eternal. God is love. He demonstrated it at the cross. He continues to demonstrate it in the love that believers in the cross show for one another.

[1] Law, Tests of Life, cited in Stott, 159.

[2] Stott, 160.

[3] Morris, 1406.

[4] Stott, 160; Leon Morris, Testaments of Love: A Study of Love in the Bible (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1981), 136.

[5] Morris, Testaments of Love, 136.

[6] Calvin, 290.

[7] Marshall, 212.

[8] Stott, 161.

[9] Hamilton, 59.

[10] Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity (1692; London: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1970), 93.

[11] Morris, 1406.

[12] Kruse, 161.

[13] Marshall, 212.

[14] Morris, Testaments of Love, 137.

[15] Kruse, 157.

[16] Since monogenēs, “only begotten,” is used elsewhere of the widow of Nain’s son (Lk 7:12) and Jairus’ daughter (Lk 8:42), “only” (ESV) or “one and only” are probably the best translations (cf. Heb 11:17; Lk 9:38).

[17] Kruse, 157.

[18] Stott, 161.

[19] See LXX Lev 25:9; Num 5:8; Ps 130:4; Ez 44:27; Am 8:14.

[20] NIV margin: “He sent His Son as one who would turn aside his wrath, taking away our sin.”

[21] Calvin, 290.

[22] Marshall, 1406.

[23] Smalley, 243.

[24] Stott, 162.

[25] Bruce, 107.

[26] Stott, 164.

[27] Bruce, 109.