1 John Series - It all Comes Down to Love

                                                 It All Comes Down To Love

1 John 4:7-21

Doctrine of God’s love series


Right now the passion that is being demonstrated and experienced all throughout the United States over the presidential election can be measured by love. John brings it down to love for self, for one another, love for God, and love of God. Let’s look at the text. “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 

This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. 

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”


Love comes from God. We have looked at this in the last two lessons. God is the origin of selfless and unconditional love. And it is agape love that we are to have towards others, one another, and God. John makes it clear, if you do not love like God, then you do not know God, and are not born of God. This seems harsh or overbearing, but John wasn’t here to get our vote or opinion, he is stating that God who is love must live in and through us. “Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

John again is instructing us on being complete in God’s love. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us...This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment.

Love for one another was a command from Jesus to all who would follow him while he walked on Earth and after his death. The Spirit of God is also love. No one has seen the Spirit of God, but we have experienced him. He dwells in us, all who believed in the Son. “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Cor.3:16) “Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you. (2 Tim.1:14) “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. (Rom. 8:9) “This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.” I am saying all this to encourage all of us to love one another, and all others as God does, especially those who hate us.

The gospel is not just our message to the world, it should be our lifestyle. God’s love is shown by this, “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” God is speaking to us everyday to share His love with others, share with them the gospel of the Father’s love. God wants us to live love through him. I didn’t love God first when I grew up and became an adult. I really didn’t think about others, but only myself. My love to others was conditional, If they loved me, then I loved them. But as a man who loves God, if God truly lives in me by his Spirit, then God’s love will be manifested towards others as well as love towards God. It was God who loved me before I was even born, even in my sins God still loved me. Rom. 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” It really comes down to faith in Jesus. He loves us, even in our sinfulness, in our unloveliness, and He is even now pursuing us with His love.

Love for God has been the religious fervor of man towards God in the Old and New Testament. There were those who truly loved God like David. Their lives dwelled in his law and obedience to his word, but they knew God’s heart, “he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave their testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.” Acts 13:22. Then there's the other religious people, “The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.” (Isa. 29:13) I’m not here to judge anyone, as a brother in the Lord keeps saying to me, “You can’t take another person’s inventory, you can only take your own.” But God’s Word is clear on living in Christ, by the Spirit, by His Love. We are to be like Jesus, in fact John wrote, “In this world we are like Jesus.”

Finally, fear has no part in love, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” I’m sure I am not alone in this thought. There have been times in my life, where fear ruled over my heart and life. “I’m not loved. I don’t really love as I should, or I can’t love them.” Each of these has to do with fear. 

It all comes down to love. God chose to love us even before we even knew him. If there is one thing evident in our days, it is a misunderstanding of God’s love, and allowing fear to lie to us, and direct our attention and energy away from what God truly desires for us, to love him with all our heart, and to love others as we love ourselves. In the flesh, we are much quicker to judge others than to love them. This brings us to the next text. “We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.” I believe this text is self-evident. There is a lot of hate in the world because the Enemy of God is at work in the world stealing, killing and destroying lives through hate and fear. 

This brings us to the conclusion of the doctrine of God’s love. We must love God and others as God loves us. If we are to be complete in Christ, it will come through love. Ephesians 3:17-19 is a guide to completeness in Christ. “so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” 

The doctrine of God’s love hopefully is clear now. He loved us before we loved him. He sent and gave His one and only Son in love as an atonement for our sins. (Jn.3:16) It is through this love that we are to live and to love others, as well as God. God’s love is selfless and unconditional. We are to be rooted and grounded in our faith in God’s love. The fullness of God’s love can be understood by living (dwelling) in Christ.

One last word, Paul stated the confidence we should have through God’s love in Romans 8:37-38 - No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[a] neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.


Until next week,

In His Service, Mike Davis

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