1 John 4:10 Commentary and Bible Study

Human love is not worthy to be compared with God’s love, even that of converted men and women. The love of believers is good but it is no more than a response to what God has done first. It lacks this characteristic of perfect love: that it can work when there is nothing to assist it, support it. Our love does not have to overcome hostility in God towards us, but simply to come in response to his gracious initiative. Only God’s love is worthy to be held up as a definition of love for it alone is perfect in every respect. His love took the initiative in making peace with us even though he was the injured party; it acted at a time when we had least to commend us and were still his enemies; it was willing to hold nothing back, even his own Son, in order to deliver us from hell; it loved the unlovely and overcame all our proud resistance by gentle pleading; it allowed our guilt to affect the relation between the members of the Godhead and paid a price that seems far more than any one of us is worth; it continues to work in our hearts throughout our lives to prepare us for heaven, though we are so slow to learn.