Third Proclamation Section: God is Love.
4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 4:8 The one who does not love does not know God because God is love.
4:9 And this is how the love of God was revealed among us: God has sent His one and only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 4:10 This is love: Not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son, the placater of God’s wrath for our sins.
4:11 Beloved, since God loved us like this, we also ought to love one another. 4:12 No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us and His love has reached a state of maturity in us.
4:13 This is how we know that we abide in Him and He abides in us, by virtue of His Spirit whom He has given to us.
4:14 We have seen and we testify that the Father sent the Son as the world’s Savior. 4:15 Whoever acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God. 4:16 And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has in us. God is love, and the one who abides in that love abides in God, and God abides in him.
4:17 In this way love has reached a state of maturity with us, so that we may have confidence on the day of judgment, because just as ˹Jesus˺ is, so also are we in this world. 4:18 There is no fear in this love, rather mature love casts out fear, because fear comes from an expectation of punishment. The one who fears punishment has not reached a state of maturity in love.
4:19 We love because He first loved us. 4:20 If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his fellow believer, he is a liar. For the one who does not love his fellow believer whom he has seen, cannot love the God whom he has not seen. 4:21 And we have this commandment from ˹God through Jesus Christ˺: The one who loves God must also love his fellow believer.
5:1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the father also loves the child born from Him. 5:2 This is how we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and carry out His commandments.
5:3 For this is our love for God, that we keep His commandments. Moreover, His commandments are not burdensome, 5:4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world, and this is the overcoming power that has overcome the world – our faith.
Translation by the author from the SBL Greek New Testament.
Overview of the Third Proclamation Section
Review
In the Prologue of his letter (verses 1:1 and 1:4), the Apostle John established that he was a eyewitness to the revelation of the Eternal Life that was incarnated in the historical person of Jesus Christ. God’s message was revealed to mankind in such a way that it could be audibly heard, visually seen, and even physically touched. It took on a personal form in Jesus Christ. This Eternal Life is now available to those who believe in Jesus Christ.
John continues his letter by proclaiming what he has seen, heard and touched so that the readers can experience fellowship, and to counter the teachings of disruptors who threaten fellowship. His presentation is organized around three “proclamation” sections that focus on the nature of God and the implications for fellowship with God and fellowship with fellow believers. The three proclamation sections are:
– God is Light: Fellowship Depends on Walking in the Light
– God is Righteous: Fellowship Depends on Practicing Righteousness
– God is Love: Fellowship Depends on Expressing Mature Love
Third Proclamation Section: God is Love
The Third Proclamation section runs from verse 4:7 to verse 5:4. The major units of content in this section are as follows:
A. Theme Statement for God is Love (4:7-8)
In Unit A, John presents the Theme Statement for the Third Proclamation section:
7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God because God is love.
John begins this section with the command to “love one another“. He states that love is a defining characteristic and primary attribute of God that should also characterize those who believe in God. Expressing unconditional love through actions and deeds is evidence that a believer “has been born of God and knows God“. The person who does not love does not really understand God because to know God is to express His love to others.
B. God’s Love Was Revealed in Jesus Christ and is Expressed Through Us (4:9-12)
In Unit B, John explains that the sacrificial love that originated in God (Unit A, 4:7-8) was revealed among us in His Son (4:9-10), and reaches a state of maturity in us when we obey God’s command to love others with the same kind of love (4:11-12).
C. The Presence of Mature Love Provides Assurance of Fellowship (4:13-18)
In Unit C, John explains that the Holy Spirit provides proof and assurance of the believer’s fellowship with God – “that we abide in Him and He abides in us”. Assurance comes through a believer’s knowledge and belief in God’s love that was demonstrated in God sending His Son, Jesus Christ, and is poured into the hearts of believers. As this same love is understood and shown to others, it is evidence that the believer abides in God, provides confidence on the day of judgement, and removes fear from our relationship with God.
D. Mature Love is Expressed through Love for One Another (4:19-5:4)
In Unit D, John explains that genuine love for God exists only when believers also love fellow believers. Love for others is grounded in love for God by keeping His commandments.
Love for God and love for others are intricately tied together so that it is impossible for them to exist apart from each other, and they confirm the genuineness of each other.
Love for God is demonstrated by doing what God says – keeping His commandments. The commandments of God are not burdensome for the person who truly loves God. Because of faith in Jesus Christ, this person has power to overcome the world.
Click here for a full outline of First John.
The Greek Word “Love” (ἀγάπη / agapē)
The Third Proclamation section (4:7-5:4) is focused on the theme of love. In this section 34 words are used that are built on the Greek stem ἀγαπ- / agap– which conveys the idea of love – 2 adjectives, 13 nouns, and 19 verbs.
Perhaps surprisingly, the word ἀγάπη / agapē occurs only a few times in ancient secular Greek literature outside the Bible. Instead, in common secular usage were the related words φιλία /philia which referred to fondness or friendship, and ἔρος /eros which referred to love, desire, or passionate love. In classical Greek, there was very little difference in meaning between φιλία and ἀγάπη. However, Jesus and the New Testament writers took the colorless and obscure word ἀγάπη and imbued it with new meaning. It became the word that represented God’s unconditional love, to represent His deepest nature. Even today, Christians still use the English form of the word, agape, to refer to the highest expression of love – love that is selfless and unconditional.
Click here to read my previous post that explains the meaning of the word “love” (ἀγάπη / agapē) as used in the Bible.
In regard to the development of the meaning from the Old Testament, Gordon Fee in his commentary on Philippians, notes that the word ἀγάπη / agapē is used in the Septuagint (i.e., the Greek translation of the Old Testament) “both of God’s love for his people (e.g. Deuteronomy 7:7) and in the two love commands (for God [Deuteronomy 6:5] and neighbor [Leviticus 19:18]. This usage, which thus fills an otherwise empty word full of theological grist, is unquestionably the source of its usage among the early Christians, for whom it become the ultimate theological word both to describe God’s character and to articulate the essence of Christian behavior”. [Fee, Gordon D. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, The New International Commentary on the New Testament. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. 1995. p. 98, footnote 11.]
In regard to theology and God’s love, “agape denotes a reasoned-out love, rather than an emotionally-based love (but not devoid of emotion) – one that loves the object irrespective of the worth of the object and even though the love may not be reciprocated”. [Enns, Paul. The Moody Handbook of Theology. Moody Press. 1989. p. 192]
Verse 4:7
Beloved,
John again addresses his readers as “beloved” (ἀγαπητοί / agapētoi) which he does six times in this short letter: 2:7, 3:2, 3:21, 4:1, 4:7, and 4:11. The word is significant for the following reasons:
- In each instance, It gets the attention of the reader and signals that what follows is an important statement.
- It highlights the affection John has for the readers.
- It implies that John writes as a mentor who has a true personal interest in the spiritual development of the readers.
“beloved” should probably be understood as not just John’s love for the readers, but also God’s love for the readers – they are beloved by John and God.
let us love one another,
John begins this section with the command to “love one another“. This is the second of five occurrence of the words “love one another” in First John (3:11; 3.23; 4:7; 4:11; 4:12; also see 2 John 1:5).
In the context of First John, “love one another” specifically means to love fellow believers, because this is where Christian love must start. Also, as seen previously in First John, when John writes about love, he means love as expressed through actions and deeds (1 John 3:16-18):
3:18 Little children, let us not love by merely talking about it, rather let us love through actions consistent with the truth.
The command to “love one another” goes back to the teaching of Jesus himself (John 13:34f.; 15:12), and is something that the readers “heard from the beginning” of their Christian experience when they heard the Gospel message (1 John 3:11):
3:11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
Greek Note: let us love one another
The first three Greek words, translated as “let us love one another“, is an alliteration which Robert Yarbrough says “shows a certain skill in the use of words”. [YARBROUGH p. 232, footnote 3] An alliteration is the repetition of the same sound at the beginning of a series of words to provide a lyrical effect to draw the listener’s attention. The three Greek words are:
ἀγαπητοί ἀγαπῶμεν ἀλλήλους / agapētoi agapētoi allēlous
because love is from God.
In commenting on this phrase, Glenn Barker notes in his commentary that love “is not a virtue innate in us nor is it learned behavior. It is ‘from God.’ He is the originator – the giver of love”. [BARKER p. 342]
Unconditional love is a defining characteristic and primary attribute of God that should also characterize those who believe in God.
In the next unit, John will explain how God’s love was revealed.
Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
Expressing unconditional love through actions and deeds is evidence that a believer “has been born of God and knows God” – is a child of God. See Ephesians 5:1.
Verse 4:8
The one who does not love does not know God…
There is a direct relation between showing unconditional love and knowing God.
This is the third time John has mentioned “the one who does not love” (ὁ μὴ ἀγαπῶν / ho mē agapōn):
- That person is not God’s offspring.
3:10 By this it is clear who God’s children are and who the Devil’s children are. Everyone who does not practice righteousness is not God’s offspring, to be specific, the one who does not love his fellow believer.
- That person abides in death.
3:14 Because we love fellow believers, we know that we have passed out of death into life. The one who does not love abides in death.
- That person does not know God.
4:8 The one who does not love does not know God because God is love.
Thus as Karen Jobes notes in her commentary, “the failure to love is not simply an ethical failing, but means that one remains in the darkness of sin, apart from salvation”. [JOBES p. 190] They do not have eternal life.
The implication is that “a person cannot come into a real relationship with a loving God without being transformed into a loving person”. [MARSHALL p. 212] The person who does not love does not really understand God. To know God is to express His love to others.
because God is love.
This is one of the great statements of the Bible. It indicates that love is the very nature of God that affects all that He does. All God’s actions are loving – He created in love, He rules in love, He will judge in love.
The next verse will explain how God’s love was revealed.
Go back to verses 4:4-6
Go forward to verses 4:9-12
Your Personal Study
Read First John 4:9-12 below and answer the questions.
4:9 And this is how the love of God was revealed among us: God has sent His one and only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 4:10 This is love: Not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son, the placater of God’s wrath for our sins.
4:11 Beloved, since God loved us like this, we also ought to love one another. 4:12 No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us and His love has reached a state of maturity in us.
1. How was God’s love revealed among us?
2. What are two reasons why God’s love was revealed?
3. Why was God wrathful toward us?
4. “Placate” means to appease, satisfy, or turn away wrath. Who placated God’s wrath? How do you think he did this?
5. According to verse 11, what is our proper response to God’s love for us?
6. How can people see an invisible God?
7. According to verse 12, what are two results of loving one another?
First John Translation.
First John Translation with Outline and Notes.
Bibliography of source information used for this series of posts.
Title Slide Image Credit: First John in Codex Alexandrinus, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Unless otherwise noted, English translations of Bible verses are by the author from the Greek text and are not quotations from any copyrighted Bible version or translation.
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