If God so loved as John has described in 1 John 4:7-10, then the only possible response is to love one another (4:11-12). This is a conditional sentence that assumes the premise is true, something like “since God has loved us by sending his son, then we ought to love one another.”
The only way the world will see God is through behavior of his people. When we demonstrate our love for God by loving one another, we reveal God to the world.
This is challenging since the world does not usually associate love with the organized church. Whether this is the classic cranky nun teaching in a Catholic school or an abusive priest, the puritanical Baptist pastor ranting against sin, preaching hellfire and brimstone on the street corner; the gossiping old women judging the way a younger woman is dressed in church; judging the kid with tattoos and piercings and wearing his ball cap in the church (backwards of course).
The Holy Spirit is evidence we are abiding in God (4:13). Once again John states we “abide in him” and God “abides in us.” Does this plural pronoun mean, God abides in me as an individual, or God abides in the community of believers? This is ambiguous, and it is (perhaps intentionally) unclear whether John intended the reader as an individual to imagine God’s love abiding in them personally or whether John is describing how a local church ought to function as a living community.
Gift of the Holy Spirit promised in John 15. The Holy Spirit is also called the “Spirit of Truth” in the Gospel of John 14:17 and 16:13. Here in 1 John 4:6 (cf. 5:6) John describes the role of the Spirit of God as enabling the believer to discern true teaching from false. In Second Temple Period Judaism, the “spirit of truth” has a similar use of the phrase.
How does the presence and activity of the Holy Spirit express itself in love for one another? In the letter John has already stated Jesus is the messiah and son of God sent in the flesh, Now John expands is view of Jesus to include “savior of the world” (4:14-15).
Would the opponents deny this? It is easy enough to believe a Jewish teacher named Jesus lived in Galilee and gathered some disciples, challenged Jewish Temple aristocracy and was falsely accused as attacking the Roman government, resulting in his crucifixion. But is this knowledge of a historical Jesus enough to be “born of God”? For John, Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God revealed in the flesh, and the Savior of the world. These are not theological points people can pick one or two of and be born of God. This is a full package, all are required to “abide in God.”
It is remarkable Jesus is the savior of the world since in John’s Gospel the world is in active rebellion against God. Yet John 3:16 says God loved the world and sent his son to be an atoning sacrifice for the world. That Jesus “saved the world” is another gracious act in which God extends salvation to people who are in total rebellion against him, unable and unwilling to do anything to reconcile themselves to God.
The first thing that caught my eye in this article is that the world will only see God through our behavior of His people. Even though we don’t realize it, but a lot of people look up to individuals, whether it is believers, nonbelievers, children, etc. We are always being watched and probably judged by other people in the world but the way we respond to that is important. The article goes on to talk about how the presence and activity of the Holy Spirit express itself by loving one another. Using examples from John 4:14 says that Jesus is the “savior of the world”, that meaning He rules over everything, and no one is greater than Him. In John 3:16 it says, “For God so loved the world that He gave him one and only son that whoever believes in him will have eternal life”. God even shows his love to the world by showing love and grace to those who don’t believe in Him and won’t do anything to accept God and believe in Him. That is where we come in with our words and actions, because the world is watching us, and we need to bring others to Christ. I also don’t think there is such thing as having too many believers, so I think as Christians we need to continue to show others that we come in contact with the love that Christ Jesus has shown us no matter if you like or dislike that person.
It is sad that Christians today are often viewed as judgmental and hypocrites. Or call to love others is very clear. Acts shows a beautiful picture of the church. The church was on spreading the gospel rapidly, they cared for the poor and sick and they were generous (Acts 4:32-35). This is a great example of how the church should be loving others. Not only did the church care for their community’s physical needs, but the church was also telling the people about Jesus. Acts 4:33 says, “With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 4:33). Besides this there was a spirit of unity as well. However, this unity does not mean Christians accept other religions but that they tell ithers about Jesus because “love doesn’t trump truth” rather they should work together (Jobes, 2011, p.429). We are called to love that is much deeper than a feeling. We are called to a love that takes action. The church can certainly take more action to love others by reflecting the fruits of the spirit such as: kindness, gentleness, self-control, peace, joy, love, generosity, and faithfulness. While also not being afraid of standing firm in the truth about who Jesus is.
Reference
Jobes, K. H. (2011). Letters To the Church: A survey of Hebrews and the general epistles. Zondervan.
This section is an important one to take note of. It may have become cliche to say that sometimes we are the only Jesus people see, meaning that they might only know about Jesus from how we live and witness to them, but that is exactly what these verses are saying. Because we are loved, we should love others, and because of this, we will show the love of God to others. This reminds me of Matthew 5:16 “In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” I think if John were to write this phrase he would say, “Love others in such a way that your love is evidence of your love for God and the love that God has for his children.” Jobes explains that loving others is directly tied to loving God, “To love God means to keep his commandments…love for others is rooted in a love for God…What passes for love in the world is only a poor counterfeit of the riches of love in Christ” (429). Jobes’ last statement, that love in the world is a poor counterfeit of the love of Christ is not specified to one group. Christians too can do a poor job loving others. The church is often not seen as a place of love, and the world tries all the more to make it seem like the church isn’t loving. The world says we don’t love because we don’t support LGBTQ+ lifestyles. The world says we don’t love because we believe in absolute truth, not letting them have their truth and us have our truth. Loving God means being obedient to him, which means that sometimes we will have to go against the world in order to follow God. But loving God also means loving people. So it is important to understand what love is. The best explanation of love that I can think of is to selflessly seek the best interest of the other individual. Loving them does not mean we agree with everything they do. Sometimes it even means telling them they are wrong. Loving them is seeking what is best for them, and that may mean telling them they are wrong so that they can get back on track. I mean, God’s love for us is that way. He first tells us that we are sinners, and we are wrong and we have messed up, but his love doesn’t stop there. He then provides a way for us to get back on the right track, his son, Jesus.
It is so humbling to think about the fact that God choose us despite of our sin and imperfections. It is crazy to think about how completely broken we are, to the point where we need to be commanded to love others and to show kindness. Even that goes against our broken and sinful nature. The fact that God has to command us to do something, shows us that we would otherwise most likely not do that thing out of natural instinct. This gives us all the more reason to thank God and praise Him. We are so undeserving of Gods love, attention, grace and mercy, yet He continually upholds us each and every day anyway. Because of what God has done for us, it gives us a motivation to show love and kindness with others. Not only does being loving and kind go against our nature, but our reason for being loving and kind is because of what God has first done for us. We need to be told to be loving, but we also need Christ as our motivation in order to be loving and have a reason to continue showing love. Thankfully God chose to be merciful to us and send His son for us, otherwise we would have no reason to be loving or to want to do good to others and for others. Our actions praise God because they are in obedience to the commands He has given to us, and our actions serve as a testimony to Him.
I feel like many churches lack the sense of love within them. It almost becomes a battle or a competition to see who is more “godly” and in sight of this, people lose the real meaning of being a Christian. Jesus showed us love unconditionally. He loved everyone and set many examples for us to follow. Jesus healed the sick, the hungry, and the blind all in love. He knew no hate. It is so easy for people to judge rather than to accept and love. It is so important to remember that we are all made in the image of God and should love always. Jesus served and that was also how he loved. 1 John 4:19 “We love because he first loved us.” (ESV) It is just that simple. Church can be a scary place to go and it can be uncomfortable. As I was saying before, some are there not with a pure heart. They may not seem welcoming and that is hard to address. It comes to no matter what you are faced with or how bad things get you have to choose love. Even if you are suffering, choose love. Jesus suffered just like the rest of us and he still chose to show people how big his heart was. How can we bring others to salvation when we are not being an example ourselves. People may think that they never want to be a Christian just because of the actions that they have seen from “believers’ ‘. The presence of the Holy Spirit shows us love. God decided to send his only Son because he loved us. That should mean enough right there to want to show others love. It is one of the most simplest things that we can do as Christians.
As humans, we should be taught from birth to treat someone how to be treated, and that is with respect, and kindness shown through God telling us so. Verse 12 of John talks about just because we can’t see God doesn’t mean he is not apparent in our lives, and because we are built in the image of God, it should be in our subconscious mind to love everyone, but sadly because of Satan, we are not given this easily. Because we are plagued with sin, our minds can cause anger, irritation, and many emotions that God deems bad, because God wants to live with us to complete us, from the end of verse 12. The only way God can live through us is we understand the concept of forgiveness, which sometimes is clouded by rage when something happens to us, but what God wants is t not fight evil with evil, but evil with Love, because then God can help us be guided in the right direction of forgiveness of one another. The moment that person fights evil with evil he is lost with the devil because of the fact that God cannot be with us.
The original reason I began reading this post was because the title caught my eye. “Love one another,” this is something that seems to be pushed so much in the christian community and for great reason. But how many of us actually take the time to think about the statement before we just say is like it’s second nature. In the beginning of the post it talks about how the world views the church and how many don’t accossiate it with love. I would say there many even be Christians who feel the same way about the organized church. At the end P. Long talks about how remarkable it is that Jesus is the savior of the world with the rebellion that was happening in John’s gospel. I think all of these thought combine make for some deep things to think about. How much God loves us? How can we love one another in the turmoil that is today’s society? How can we better the church and show the love we have to offer?
The idea of loving one another is something that is taught to everyone at a young age regardless of their religion. I grew up going to public school and we were always taught in the classroom that we should love and care for everyone. While many people who teach this are doing it for a good reason, they do not truly understand that this is an instruction given to us. 1 John 4: 11 clearly states that because God loves us we should also love each other. I really liked how Long states, “The only way the world will see God is through behavior of his people. When we demonstrate our love for God by loving one another, we reveal God to the world.” (Long, 2020). As Christians, I believe that this is extremely important for us to understand. If you are a Christian that is throwing hate around it will push people away from God’s love that he gives out. An example that we can see in today’s world is how some people who claim to be Christians push away members of the lgbtq community. While it’s definitely true that we should not support their actions or their views we must support and love them as humans.
My challenge with this passage is brought up when thinking about the other passages in the Bible about holding other Christians accountable. Such as Galatians 6 talks about this and walking through life together. When loving someone there are some really hard parts. The word abide is really interesting because it is to accept or act in accordance to. Now, when we do this and abide in Christ and His word. What is the correct way to walk with others in love as God does with us? God sent His only son in order to save the world and through this shows the unrelenting love. How does one reflect this same love to others who are struggling? Now, the photo that you added to this post is interesting because my sister used to live by a women’s clinic that did not even offer abortions; however, people would sit outside for hours with signs similar to those. I remember talking to many people about this. Is that the right way to truly love others? In today’s society in America I am finding it to be a lot harder to walk through the changes and understand the way that God wants us to love. With the way the world is changing I don’t know how to continue to transfer these passages to the way the world is. I find it interesting to read about the messed up things going on in the times of these passages. I know this is different but they also were struggling with sin. I see this as a calling to be challenged; however, what is the proper way to love others that do not believe anywhere close to similar to me.
As long as I can remember whether it was in Sunday school, youth group, or school classrooms all of them had the same message, care for one another. The public school that I went to had a different context in which it was pulling it from, no matter if it was from the Bible or not it sounded the exact same. When I look at the world around me I see this concept being beyond distorted because they only take the “good” side of love. What I mean by that is they disregard the part of love that may cause pain; the truth. I know I got spanked as a kid and every time my parents would spank me or punish me they would tell me “I’m doing this out of love”. As a kid you don’t understand, but as you grow up you are thankful for all the times that your parents corrected you because you wouldn’t be the kid you would be today if they never did. The world along with Christianity has completely thrown away the part of love that makes it true. It is shown in our relationships of not telling the truth to someone or to the pastor who reads directly out of the Bible but gets slandered because he said that being gay or having sex outside of marriage is wrong. The world focuses on the part of love that accepts everything about someone regardless of what it is. That’s why there has been a massive rise in trans and homosexuality in this country becuase no one can tell them the loving truth that they are in the wrong. I also think that this “harsher” part of love can be misused too. I find that a lot of churches abuse this part of love. They completely destroy someone or have zero regard of what they are going through and tell them everything wrong with them or the things they are doing and forget about the other part of love. Love is something that sinful humans will never be able to fully understand and that’s why we will always get it wrong and misuse it. The great thing is that there is one person who does know what true love is and knows the perfect balance between the 2 sides of love so that he can love us unconditionally.
We live in the light of God’s love, which is why we love each other, and God has given us love. John places great importance on the need for love among God’s people, who must be able to love one another inside the body of Christ. John says that a believer is born of God and receives something unique when they are reborn by the power of the Holy Spirit. According to John, our love for one another will be seen when we experience the true God, but we cannot truly claim to know and experience God if we lack love for God’s people.
Love is found in God, enters our lives through our relationship with Him, and we must get closer to God if we wish to love one another deeper. Love is the heart and character of God, and love and compassion are the primary attributes of God’s real nature. In his holiness, in his righteousness, and in his justice, God is love. God shows his love in all he does, but he is unable to hate since he is loved. His Son’s incarnation, who experienced death for all men, is the greatest testament to his love for all people. The giving heart of the Father defines love just as much as the sacrifice made by Jesus, and the love that God the Father has for us is the same love that Jesus showed during his time. We are able to benefit from our father’s love’s healing power, and Jesus is a special and only begotten son, and he and the Father are one and the same.
Loving one another is not exactly something that I believe is taught, but is rather instilled in us and created within us. I also believe love for one another is an act of God as he puts love into us, Proving why when we are truly in love, we feel feelings we can’t describe. In the Bible, John explains how much God loves us in 1 John 4:7-10. He says if we understand this love, we should love others too (4:11-12). It’s like saying, “Since God loves us, we should love others.” John says the world sees God through how we treat each other. When we’re kind, it shows who God is to the world. But sometimes I see people in the church don’t act as loving as they should. Whether that be a strict nun or a harsh preacher, it can be hard for people to see God’s love in our actions. John also talks about the Holy Spirit, which shows we’re connected to God (4:13). It helps us know what’s true and what’s not. John says Jesus isn’t just the Messiah, he’s also the “savior of the world” (4:14-15). Some people don’t fully accept God and maybe just half way it with him, but for John, believing in Jesus means accepting him fully, there is no other way around it. It’s amazing that Jesus saves the world, especially since John’s Gospel says the world is rebelling against God. Leading into maybe one of the most popular verses in the entirety of the Bible, “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”(John 3:16). showing God’s incredible kindness, even to people who are rebelling him and don’t believe, and don’t accept him.