Lesson for August 28, 2024

The Book of I John

I John 4:7-13

Verse 7

“Beloved, let’s love one another; for love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.”

God’s love is always based on His integrity and virtue. All of God’s attributes work together as one cohesive system, designed to empower believers to fulfill His plan for their lives. Therefore, divine love cannot operate independently of His integrity. Many have “created” God in their personal image. They often ascribe to God their own superficial, emotional love, and call it “the love of God.” God is not sentimental about us. He does not love us because we are “lovable.” 

Everyone who loves (exhibits virtue-love) has been born of God and knows God. Only believers living inside of God’s power system can exhibit the virtue-love of God for others, which is impersonal, unconditional love. Our strength to love another person comes from the integrity and virtue we develop from the study and application of God’s Word. This is how human integrity and virtue are able to exhibit divine integrity and virtue.

God is the source of love, and we take our precedence for loving others from Jesus Christ. Everyone in this verse refers to believers. Remember John is teaching Christian love, therefore, only Christians (born of God) can exhibit God’s love.

Unconditional love is how we regard others and involves being tolerant of others despite their behavior, their personality, or their beliefs. Our attitude should be the same that Christ exhibited toward others. The ultimate demonstration of unconditional love was Christ’s attitude on the Cross when He said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34)

Verse 8

“The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

Unbelievers (does not know God) do not have the ability to exhibit God’s love. It is the power of God the Holy Spirit that enables believers to exhibit this kind of love. However, God designed all categories of love, even human love. Capacity for human love involves thought and emotion. For believers, human love should be on a higher plane, since we have the potential for increased capacity for loving others, using the Bible doctrine in our souls. Therefore, the pattern for human love is God’s love.

Verse 9

“By this the love of God was revealed in us, that God has sent His only Son into the world so that we may live through Him.”

God has not only provided eternal salvation for believers, but He has also given them a system to live their Christian life. John 3:16 tells us about the love that God has for the entire human race that caused Him to send His uniquely born Son to provide eternal life for those who believe in Him. John 10:10 tells us about the life that God wants us to live after salvation. Only within God’s power system can we enjoy the abundant life spoken of by Jesus in this verse.

Verse 10

“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.”

The Greek word for propitiation is “hilasmos,” and means to appease the wrath of an offended party or to satisfy the demands of someone that has been offended.

Jesus Christ propitiated (satisfied) the righteousness of God through His substitutionary payment for sin. Christ went to the Cross in a state of sinless perfection because He was able to endure temptations and refrain from any form of personal sin, through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Because of propitiation, God is justified in crediting His righteousness to those who place their faith in Christ as Savior. By possessing the righteousness of God, a person can spend eternity with a righteous (holy) God. Man’s righteousness falls well short of the perfection needed to enter Heaven. (Romans 3:23) God is free to give His righteousness to all who believe in Christ because His righteousness and justice were satisfied by Christ’s death on the Cross. (Romans 10:4; II Corinthians 5:21)

Verse 11

“Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” 

Under the filling of the Holy Spirit, God’s love can be reproduced in our lives. God’s love does not depend on the “love-ability” or compatibility of the object. God’s love is unconditional and our love toward others is developed through the knowledge and application of His Word. (Romans 13:8-10, 15:1-3; Galatians 6:10; Colossians 3:12-13)

Verse 12

“No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is perfected in us.”

The world system implies that “love” means that we enjoy someone, admire them, that they make us happy, that they treat us nicely, etc. It is easy to love someone like this when they exhibit these traits. The challenging kind of love is impersonal love (unconditional love) when a person fails to exhibit these traits. Impersonal love is “loving” someone that we don’t enjoy, that we don’t admire, that doesn’t make us happy, that doesn’t treat us nicely, etc. 

Developing and learning to exhibit unconditional love is of utmost importance for a victorious Christian life. This requires setting aside our emotions, and instead thinking and applying Biblical principles to produce right attitudes. Right attitudes will produce right behavior. 

Loving others unconditionally often requires adjusting and adapting to other people instead of expecting them to adjust and adapt to us. This does not mean that we condone wrong behavior, rather it means that we love others despite their behavior. Unconditional love is selfless love; loving without asking “what’s in it for me.” (I Thessalonians 4:9-12; I Peter 3:8-16; James 2:1-9) 

Verse 13

“By this we know that we remain in Him and He in us, because He has given to us of His Spirit.”

Every believer is sealed with the Holy Spirit at the moment of faith in Christ for salvation. We know this from an examination of Scripture in the original language. The sealing work of the Holy Spirit is immediate and simultaneous with our faith in Christ. The sealing ministry of the Holy Spirit is our assurance from God of a secure future. The word in Greek for sealing is “sphragizo,” and means to secure, to signify ownership, or to authenticate. Ephesians 1:13-14, “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the Gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of the promise, Who is a first installment of our inheritance, in regard to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.”